BV  4010  . T57 

Tiiroe,  William  Edwin,  1861 
Sent  forth 


■fc 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/sentforthOOtilr 


SENT  FORTH 


/ 

W.  E.  TILROE 

Professor  of  Historical  and  Pastoral  Theology 
Maclay  School  of  Religion 
University  of  Southern  California 

Introduction  by 

EZRA  A.  HEALY 

Dean  Emeritus,  Maclay  School  of  Religion 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1923,  by 

W.  E.  TILROE 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


To  Wife  and  Children 

“ Away  with  weary  cares  and  themes , 
Swing  wide  the  moonlit  gate  of  dreams  ” 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Page 

Introduction .  7 

All  Day  With  God.  Poem .  11 

At  the  Bars .  13 

Chapter 

I.  Perspective .  17 

II.  The  Personal  Equation .  26 

III.  The  Preacher’s  Ideals .  36 

IV.  Star  Preachers .  48 

V.  Little  Foxes .  59 

VI.  Jesus  the  Preacher .  68 

VII.  The  Shepherd  Christ .  78 

VIII.  The  Cultural  Christ .  93 

IX.  The  Pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene. .  .  103 

X.  The  Thrills  of  the  Bible .  121 

XI.  The  Regnant  Christ .  138 

XII.  The  Curative  Christ .  146 

XIII.  The  Son  of  the  Carpenter .  157 

XIV.  The  Despair  of  Pilate .  168 

XV.  The  Bible  Church .  178 

XVI.  The  Seven  Churches .  192 

XVII.  An  Unconverted  Preacher . 202 

XVIII.  Evangelism . 218 

XIX.  The  Posthumous  Gospel . 230 

XX.  Over  the  Border . 245 


INTRODUCTION 


To  persuade  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God, 
to  illumine  the  levels  of  the  nobler  life,  to 
“allure  to  brighter  worlds  and  lead  the  way,” 
must  always  be  the  grandest  mission  possible 
to  men.  Any  real  contribution  to  the  literature 
that  aims  at  a  true  appraisement  of  this  work, 
preparation  for  it,  and  success  in  it  will  there¬ 
fore  be  welcomed  by  all  right-thinking  persons. 

Such  a  contribution,  I  venture  to  say,  will 
be  found  in  this  volume. 

I  began  its  perusal  in  anticipation  of  some¬ 
thing  at  once  original  and  valuable,  and  have 
read  on  with  growing  interest  from  “At  the 
Bars”  to  “Over  the  Border.” 

The  purist  in  style  and  language  may  some¬ 
times  pause  over  some  colloquial  phrase  or 
quaint  expression.  The  reader  may  here  and 
there  feel  that  these  cryptic  sentences  seem  to 
lack  close  relation,  but  a  little  thought  is  sure  to 
supply  the  link.  Doctor  Tilroe’s  style  is  his 
own  and  does  not  fail  to  hold  the  eager  interest 
of  either  auditor  or  reader. 

Of  most  importance,  however,  is  what  the 
author  of  Sent  Forth  offers  us  in  elucidation 
of  his  theme. 


7 


8 


SENT  FORTH 


By  implication  he  ridicules  the  small  souls 
of  those  men  of  the  cloth  who,  posing  as 
moderns,  smile  patronizingly  on  “theology”  as 
they  might  on  astrology,  and  seem  to  class  them 
together.  Our  author  recognizes  all  fields  of 
quest  as  included  in  the  old  Chautauqua 
motto,  “The  Word  and  the  Works  of  God.” 
It  is  at  once  characteristic  and  refreshing  to 
read,  under  “The  Personal  Equation,”  “The 
preacher  who  is  not  a  theologian  should  be 
ashamed  to  accept  a  salary.” 

A  broad  view  is  here  taken  of  essentials  in  the 
character  and  equipment  of  a  preacher  which 
may  well  be  pondered  by  preachers  young  and 
old.  The  study  of  the  great  Model,  beginning 
with  “Jesus  the  Preacher,”  is  both  challenge  and 
inspiration.  The  balance  of  the  educational 
and  the  persuasive  in  the  pulpit  is  finely  held. 
With  insistence  on  the  “Cultural”  Tilroe  says, 
“When  we  hear  it  said  that  modem  preachers 
cannot  exhort,  it  means  that  they  cannot 
preach.”  The  evangelist  whose  constant  plea 
is  “Accept  Christ”  should  study  carefully  the 
paragraphs  on  “The  Regnant  Christ.” 

Rich  in  homiletical  suggestion  are  the  chapter 
on  “The  Thrills  of  the  Bible”  and  the  letter 
to  the  “Seven  Churches.”  A  true  evangelism 
is  here  shown  in  a  glory  that  needs  no  scaf¬ 
folding  of  gymnastics  or  vulgar  stories.  As  one 


INTRODUCTION 


9 


reads  he  thinks  of  Spurgeon,  Joseph  Parker, 
and  Jowett,  of  Beecher,  and  Brooks,  and 
Simpson,  and  prays  that  the  church  may  never 
lack  such  gospel  heralds,  gloriously  equipped 
and  sent  of  God. 

Ezra  A.  Healy. 

Dean  Emeritus,  Maclay  School  of  Religion, 
University  of  Southern  California. 


ALL  DAY  WITH  GOD 


One  word  with  Thee  is  conquest, 

One  touch  of  Thee  is  calm, 

The  radiance  of  Thy  presence 
Makes  all  my  day  a  psalm. 

To  hear  Thee  in  the  morning 
Say,  “Welcome  to  this  day,” 

Makes  all  my  deeds  of  service 
A  happy  holiday. 

To  hear  Thee  in  the  noontide 

Say,  “Break  thou  bread  with  Me,” 
Doth  change  my  daily  hunger 
To  sacrament  with  Thee. 

To  hear  Thy  voice  at  evening 
Say,  “Tired  child,  take  rest,” 

Is  better  than  the  moonlight, 

Or  gentle  mother  breast. 

Thus,  every  day  is  comfort, 

When  spent,  my  Lord,  with  Thee, 

And  every  step  is  onward, 

And  all’s  all  well  with  me. 

—William  A.  Quayle. 


11 


AT  THE  BARS 


There  is  some  excuse  for  this  book.  Ap¬ 
prentice  of  the  manse,  an  ancient  pilgrim,  a 
teacher  for  a  season,  one  might  not  well  make 
tryst  with  the  setting  sun  and  leave  no  sign. 
He  owes  too  much  to  a  world  that  has  been  kind 
to  him.  To  pay  one’s  debts  is  virtue  if  it  were 
not  wisdom. 

And  the  time  needs  all  its  friends.  The  old 
earth  has  quite  too  little  of  its  treasure  left. 
The  thieves  are  in  the  cage,  but  the  loot  is  gone. 
The  world  is  in  a  mood  to  get.  He  who 
would  give  gives  twice. 

Besides,  with  whom  is  sharing  of  one’s  own 
more  fitting  than  with  him  who  earns  only  that 
he  may  give?  The  dozen  men  and  women  who 
could  keep  their  one  brave  heart  in  khaki 
cheerful  at  his  task  are  forever  to  be  envied. 
Their  company  is  honor. 

This  man  sent  forth,  the  man  of  a  mission, 
who  is  not  his  own,  has  not  been  therefore 
simply  a  tool,  a  bridge  to  cross,  a  handle  to  real 
affairs.  He  has  been  himself  a  real  affair.  Men 
do  not  write  history  and  overlook  the  prophet, 
the  priest,  the  minister,  preacher,  apostle, 

13 


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pastor.  The  hours  and  paths  are  few  that  have 
not  known  him.  That  he  is  one  of  many  names 
is  but  a  minor  note  of  his  high  place.  Rabbi, 
dominie,  clergyman,  ecclesiastic,  rector,  father, 
bishop,  elder,  deacon,  licentiate,  theologian, 
chaplain,  man  of  God,  is  added  suggestion: 
neither  list  nor  catalogue.  In  some  guise,  from 
the  earliest  days,  among  all  peoples,  in  every 
land,  the  holy  man  has  had  his  room  and  rank 
and  rule.  Whether  leader  of  men,  or  gladly, 
proudly  servant  of  men,  he  has  forever  found 
standing  as  a  man  among  men.  He  was  the 
inescapable.  There  was  magic  with  him. 

Sometimes  it  was  the  witchery  of  words.  He 
was  the  original  “tongue  of  silver.”  Again  it  was 
the  lure  of  tradition,  the  spell  of  the  trail.  Com¬ 
monly  the  beauty  of  holiness,  the  regnancy 
of  plain  goodness,  worked  its  will.  Often  it 
was  his  kindly  ministry  in  sorrow.  By  the 
record,  signs  and  wonders  were  not  rarely  in 
his  hand.  Seldom  enough  was  he  a  fool,  and 
usually  he  was  held  the  wise  man  of  the  parish. 
He  wrote  books,  guided  the  annals  of  his  times, 
founded  libraries,  was  good  counsel  to  all 
comers.  Princes  and  kings  named  him  friend. 
The  altar,  the  desk,  sowing  and  harvest,  grief 
and  joy,  the  cradle  and  the  grave,  were  lonely 
in  his  going.  With  the  old  man  of  the  tribe  the 
holy  man  was  one  to  be  reckoned  with,  to  be 


AT  THE  BARS 


15 


set  apart  from  his  kind,  to  be  held  in  honor,  in 
the  seats  of  the  mighty  to  sit  at  home.  From 
ancient  days,  for  good  or  ill  as  one  might  deem, 
the  minister  has  been  a  man  of  worth  and  note. 
There  was  good  great  reason  for  him.  He  did 
not  happen. 

The  layman  will  not  largely  see  these  pages. 
To  know  his  minister  well  has  been  to  get  under 
his  load,  and  he  has  one  of  his  own.  Then,  too, 
he  thinks  it  is  a  family  matter,  and  he  has  good 
manners.  The  kindly  friend  who  could  not 
forget  his  pastor  of  another  day  does  not  count. 
He  would  lend  him  money,  not  to  say  time  and 
patience.  As  to  a  sort  at  least,  the  layman  does 
not  read  books.  He  is  licentiate  of  the  morning 
paper,  and  ridden  of  the  rush.  Reading  books 
means  leisure.  That  homiletics  is  a  new  process 
in  supply  and  demand  he  is  not  sure.  The 
preacher  man  is  another  story.  There  is  truly 
no  fraternity  on  earth  like  the  brotherhood  of 
the  ministry.  We  chat  an  hour  ere  we  sleep. 

To  be  more  serious,  one’s  deeper  convictions 
are  the  heritage  of  his  kind.  He  would  never 
know  how  far  they  stray  did  he  not  tell  his 
fellow.  Till  what  is  true  comes  by,  the  world 
forever  waits.  The  price  of  one  preacher  may 
be  the  cost  of  another. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  these  pages  might 
be  of  interest  in  the  classroom.  They  are  the 


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sowing  and  harvest  of  the  classroom.  During 
eight  school  years  not  a  few  great-hearted 
fellows,  coming  to  place  in  the  ministry,  have 
considered  these  sayings  among  many  and  will 
greet  them  again  as  none  others  may.  General 
literature  needs  only  a  guiding  hand  to  have  a 
textbook  value  of  the  largest  worth.  What  one 
may  do  with  his  own  is,  of  course,  quite  another 
affair.  How  far  one’s  voice  shall  carry  is  forever 
of  the  tentative.  The  prime  concern  is  that  at 
its  reach  it  shall  be  of  use. 

W.  E.  T. 


CHAPTER  I 
PERSPECTIVE 

A  rod  quite  straight  in  air  or  water,  in  air 
and  water,  will  bend.  A  railway  train  is  large 
or  small  as  near  or  far.  We  know  better;  we 
cannot  see  better.  The  rod  has  not  changed; 
the  train  is  the  same.  How  they  appear  is  a 
different  matter.  That  is  the  world  of  perspec¬ 
tive.  An  artist  will  put  wide  leagues  on  an  inch 
square.  He  is  master  of  perspective.  Perspec¬ 
tive  has  to  do  with  things  as  they  look.  As 
diagnosis  is  knowing  through,  perspective  is 
seeing  through.  What  is  the  minister  in 
perspective?  Of  what  manner  of  men?  As  a 
minister? 

Of  course,  the  minister  is  one  with  a  mission. 
His  credentials  are  not  his  own.  He  is  sent.  He 
is  one  with  a  commanding  mission.  He  is  sent 
of  God.  “How  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher  ?”  is  the  logic  of  the  skies.  Even  the 
Eternal  Father  could  not  content  himself 
except  in  sending  forth  his  Son  to  preach.  “I 
must  preach  the  kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities 
also :  for  therefore  am  I  sent.”  Whether  popular¬ 
ly  so  or  not,  preaching  is  of  an  autocracy,  the 

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autocracy  of  God.  As  a  minister’s  credentials 
are  not  his  own,  so  neither  are  they  of  the 
neighbors.  As  to  him,  all  ordination,  all 
ecclesiastical  polity,  is  second  hand.  Whether 
patriarch,  prophet,  priest,  bishop,  evangelist, 
or  of  any  name,  he  is  a  man  sent  from  God. 
The  King  of  kings  has  haled  him  forth.  He  is 
forever  an  ambassador.  . 

Then  there  is  no  minister  except  as  there  is  a 
man.  If  so  be  he  is  a  woman,  she  must  be 
“the  eternal  feminine.”  By  so  much  as  she  or 
he  is  conventional,  the  preacher  is  a  failure.  The 
elemental  human  is  a  primary  matter  in  this 
business.  If  his  health,  his  mental  outlook,  his 
social  connections,  his  business  affairs,  his  family 
ties  are  in  anything  abnormal,  his  wings  are 
lead.  The  usual  minister  is  far  too  much  an 
appendage  of  the  church.  The  church  did  not 
build  him;  he  built  the  church.  The  preacher 
must  be  a  man  among  men.  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  much  of  an  ordinary  Jew.  The  minister 
must  be  plain  man. 

The  normal  minister  has  his  family  about  him. 
He  is  to  be  helpful  to  men  and  women  and 
children,  young  folks  and  old  people,  brothers, 
sisters,  wives  and  sweethearts,  mothers,  fathers, 
husbands — every  kind  of  humanity — and  will 
need  to  say  the  less  the  more  he  is.  The  good 
son,  husband,  and  father,  brother  and  uncle,  is 


PERSPECTIVE 


19 


half  way  through  his  sermon  at  the  first  hymn. 
The  monastery  can  never  take  the  place  of  the 
manse.  The  home  is  a  high  pulpit. 

The  preacher  is  an  executive.  He  is  an 
official  of  the  church.  He  has  a  representative 
character.  He  is  himself  and  more.  What 
he  might  accommodate  as  a  man  he  must  often 
refuse  as  not  his  own.  In  free  America  this  note 
of  the  minister  is  largely  lost.  We  are  not 
heard  as  ambassadors.  Our  sermons  are  opin¬ 
ions.  God  speaks  his  will  in  a  world  of  order,  in 
an  organized  family,  in  differentiated  races,  in 
tribes  and  nations,  in  congenialities  and  cults, 
in  a  mighty  world  of  books,  in  his  immortal 
church,  in  shapes  and  forms,  in  system  and 
organism  everywhere.  The  minister  is  an 
apostle  of  the  organic.  He  is  sent  not  alone  to 
speak  but  also  to  build.  The  work  of  his  hands 
may  abide  when  speech  is  silence. 

The  minister  is  a  cultural  force.  God  became 
incarnate  that  men  might  know.  So  the 
preacher  must  be  a  rabbi.  He  is  bound  to  be 
as  far  beyond  his  parish  as  he  can  get.  He  is  to 
be  as  far  above  as  he  can  fly.  He  is  to  dig  till 
his  spade  falls  through.  The  very  wealth  of 
culture  among  his  people  is  his  call  to  be  their 
master.  They  have  not  half  the  opportunity  to 
command  him  that  he  has  to  rule  them,  and  to 
fail  is  folly.  The  churches  are  not  wiser  in 


20 


SENT  FORTH 


counseling  their  ministers  to  pray  and  to  be 
holy,  than  at  insisting  they  must  know.  The 
whole  round  world  is  a  school,  and  will  not  be  led 
of  the  scholars.  With  a  minister  culture  is  not 
an  elective.  It  is  a  major.  It  is  never  a  choice. 
It  is  of  the  day’s  work. 

The  preacher  is  a  citizen.  As  a  specialist  in 
culture  he  is  an  architect  of  public  opinion.  He 
is  not  so  much  to  follow  as  to  lead.  In  a 
democracy  where  the  people  rule,  the  leaders 
are  a  vital  affair.  Somebody  must  find  the 
front,  and  if  the  moral  captains  do  not,  another 
sort  will.  All  times  of  crisis  bring  the  clergymen 
to  the  fore,  and  they  uniformly  acquit  them¬ 
selves  well.  Any  distaste  for  politics,  econom¬ 
ics,  social  welfare,  should  be  early  discounted. 
No  man  can  be  indifferent  to  the  roof  over  his 
head.  The  call  of  one’s  country  or  community 
is  the  call  of  God. 

The  preacher  is  a  social  factor.  He  is  a  good 
neighbor.  If  tempted  to  counsel  overmuch 
with  his  books,  he  should  remember  that  the 
lives  of  men  are  libraries.  Men  are  the  cradles 
of  books.  Folks  are  the  original  sources.  The 
soil,  the  mine,  the  sea,  are  no  more  primary  to 
economics  than  people  to  the  preacher.  To  be 
away  from  them  far,  or  long,  is  to  lose  them. 
One  must  be  with  his  parish  to  be  of  it.  To 
feel  as  if  he  wrere  coming  down,  or  back,  or  in, 


PERSPECTIVE 


21 


or  from,  somewhere,  is  to  know  that  he  has  been 
away  too  far.  It  is  the  honor  of  God  that  he 
tabernacles  with  men.  The  Grecian  deities 
over  fond  of  Olympus  are  no  more. 

The  preacher  is  a  pastor.  His  social  life  may 
be  his  choice.  His  pastorate  is  of  his  duties.  His 
shoes  are  his  pulpit.  If  to  like  it  is  not  natural, 
he  is  to  learn.  While  going  because  he  should 
he  is  an  excuse  and  takes  the  room  of  a  better 
man.  His  Master  went  about  doing  good,  and 
if  straining  to  be  like  him,  he  should  say  his 
prayers.  He  is  comfort  to  the  heavy-hearted, 
warning  to  the  careless,  guide  to  the  wandering, 
strength  to  the  weak,  and  companion  to  him 
appointed  to  die.  Brother,  friend,  and  fellow 
traveler  with  his  kind  he  is  at  the  King's 
business.  The  Shepherd  of  Souls  is  of  God’s 
nobility. 

The  preacher  is  an  evangelist.  He  fishes  for 
men.  He  catches  men.  If  God  did  not  mistake 
himself  in  calling  him  to  the  brookside,  he  will 
surely  have  weight  in  his  creel.  It  is  of  his 
commission.  The  physician  whose  patients  all 
die,  the  farmer  who  must  buy  for  his  own  table, 
the  aviator  who  cannot  keep  off  the  ground 
should  awaken  no  more  suspicion  than  the 
preacher  who  only  preaches.  The  whole  crowd 
are  doubtful  characters. 

The  preacher  is,  finally,  a  man  of  convictions. 


22 


SENT  FORTH 


Should  the  modern  wisdom  of  the  wise  come  to 
fruition  in  the  abolishing  of  denominations,  it 
would  only  be  a  breathing  spell  till  cults  and 
societies  within  the  great  Sahara  would  spring 
to  life  and  wide  utility.  Jesuitism  was  unrest 
with  Romanism.  Methodism  could  not  quiet 
itself  within  the  State  Church  of  England.  The 
dozen  forms  of  Methodism  are  not  shapes  of 
death,  but  incarnations  of  an  abundant  life. 
The  tides  of  local  churches  are  signs  that  all  is 
not  dead.  True  ministers  are  thinkers  of  their 
own  thoughts.  They  have  no  ambition  to 
crystallize. 

A  man  called  of  God  to  be  a  minister,  a 
teacher,  an  executive,  a  social  force,  a  good 
citizen,  an  evangelist,  a  pastor,  a  friend  and 
helper  of  all  men,  cannot  be  standardized  and 
delivered  overnight.  Time  is  of  his  making  as 
surely  as  his  curriculum.  It  is  a  great  world  and 
a  great  work  the  minister  is  upon,  and  only  a 
great  readiness  is  at  all  fitting.  He  is  to  learn 
how  to  store  his  mind,  and  then  how  to  use  it. 
He  is  to  find  how  preaching  and  teaching  get  on 
together.  He  is  to  consider  when  to  enter  his 
study  and  when  to  leave  it.  The  varieties  in 
ministers  are  to  startle  him.  The  ease  and 
artistry  with  which  good  men  blunder  and  waste 
their  way  through  life  will  amaze  him.  The 
impossible  prophet  he  has  dreamed  of  being. 


PERSPECTIVE 


23 


and  that  only  his  brother  can  be,  will  discourage 
him.  How  men  do  their  stumbling  over  little 
things — awkwardness,  prejudices,  narrow  out¬ 
look,  careless  dressing,  choice  in  reading  and 
company,  emphasis  on  the  indifferent — will 
amuse  him  and  break  his  heart.  How  the  very 
wisest  missionary  is  needed  for  the  denser 
ignorance  and  depravity;  that  many  heathen 
wear  purple  and  fine  linen;  how  entirely  stupid 
a  saint  can  be;  that  the  utterly  foreign  field  is 
the  heart  of  a  great  city;  that  the  spit  is  often 
turned  of  angels,  and  fingers  are  thumbs  in  this 
old  earth,  will  give  him  an  idea  preaching  is 
much  of  a  business. 

A  really  worth-while  minister  gets  his  second 
and  hundredth  call  to  preach  wThile  wisely  about 
his  work.  The  brother  who  lost  his  religion  in 
the  seminary  was  a  long  step  toward  being 
really  a  preacher.  The  wdiirlwind  is  a  full  year 
in  any  decent  theological  course.  The  failure 
of  thousands  who  occupy  but  never  fill  a  pulpit, 
is  simply  that  they  were  rarely  deep  enough  in 
their  business  to  have  doubts.  No  man 
preaches  well  who  has  not  been  twin  to  tragedy. 
The  slain  Egyptian  of  Moses,  the  deep  waters 
of  Jonah,  the  heart-breaks  of  David,  the  thorn 
in  the  flesh  of  Paul,  the  cross  of  Jesus,  did  not 
happen.  A  minister  dies  of  the  commonplace. 
The  tragedy  of  life  is  living.  The  preacher 


24 


SENT  FORTH 


whose  parish  is  ease  is  hardly  even  an  incum¬ 
bent.  He  is  more  probably  an  encumbrance. 
The  theological  student,  sorry  his  course  is 
done  and  wishing  his  three  years  seven,  is  the 
minister  with  his  best  ahead.  A  world  in  flood 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea,  spells  a  sort  of  preaching  yet 
to  be.  We  speak  of  perspective.  We  are  wise 
men  who  see  through. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


By  so  much  as  he  or  she  is  conventional,  the 
preacher  is  a  failure. 

The  monastery  can  never  take  the  room  of  the 
manse. 

With  the  minister,  culture  is  not  an  elective. 

The  whirlwind  is  a  full  year  in  any  decent  theolog¬ 
ical  course. 

•  •  •  • 

No  man  can  be  indifferent  to  the  roof  over  his  head. 

Time  is  of  the  making  of  the  minister  as  surely  as 
his  curriculum. 

The  ease  and  artistry  with  which  good  men  blunder 
and  waste  their  way  through  life,  are  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world. 

No  man  preaches  well  who  has  not  been  twin  to 
tragedy. 

The  soul  of  the  world  is  the  world  of  the  soul. 

The  cross  is  kindness.  God  is  never  contented 
with  what  may  be  relieved. 

The  miracle  of  religion  is  the  clinic  of  the  Bible. 

The  pulpit,  and  Simday  school,  and  family  altar, 
are  resurrection  of  the  dead. 


25 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION 

It  was  a  saying  of  Moses,  mighty  among  his 
kind,  that  men  have  wings.  “The  days  of  our 
years  are  threescore  years  and  ten,  and  if  by 
reason  of  strength  they  be  fourscore  years,  yet 
is  their  strength  labor  and  sorrow,  for  it  is  soon 
cut  off,  and  we  fly  away.”  And  we  plod  as 
having  but  feet  and  hands.  What  would  life 
be  did  we  but  know  ourselves?  A  dozen  better 
men  were  of  our  cradle.  A  request  of  a  certain 
chair  in  a  Western  university  is  that  each  man 
entering  the  class  shall  furnish  an  autobiog¬ 
raphy.  What  he  is  then  is  of  purpose  to  what 
he  is  to  be.  Second  only  to  the  unveiling  of 
God  is  the  discovery  of  man. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  preacher  is  an  official,  a 
social  force,  an  apostle  of  culture,  a  citizen,  a 
neighbor,  and  things  yet  other.  He  is  likely  to 
be  lost  in  his  clothes.  That  ministers  are 
colorless  is  not  seldom  of  their  defeat.  They 
should  flee  the  commonplace  as  criminal.  The 
lighthouse  on  a  rockbound  coast  is  given  an 
interval  and  intensity,  a  character  of  its  own. 
Great  fleets,  and  lives  of  men,  are  at  its  private 

26 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION  27 


call.  So  no  minister  should  hide  his  light  under 
any  bushel.  An  immortal  soul  might  strand  and 
die.  The  world  and  the  kingdom  of  God  have 
rights  in  head,  and  heart,  and  hand,  and  all  of 
every  minister.  j 

Many  American  ministers  are  men  of  cosmo¬ 
politan  parentage  and  training.  It  may  mean 
much.  To  have  English,  Scotch,  German, 
French,  Scandinavian,  Latin,  or  Holland  blood 
in  one’s  veins  does  not  hurt  him.  To  have 
missionaries  in  the  family,  to  have  been  a 
doughboy,  to  have  seen  the  world  in  any  eyes, 
to  have  been  what  a  versatile  bishop  calls  “a 
child  of  the  manse,”  to  have  lost  one’s  self  to  his 
own  dooryard  in  any  fashion,  is  an  arrow  at  the 
ordinary.  Such  influences  lead  straight  to  a 
planetary  vision.  John  Wesley  did  not  monop¬ 
olize  the  world  as  a  parish.  A  wide  traveler 
speaks  often  of  the  “township  mind.”  He  does 
not  dwell  upon  it  as  an  acquisition.  Our 
habitat  is  a  big  one.  It  should  grow  big  men. 

A  democratic  cradle  is  an  asset.  If  one  has 
missed  it,  it  is  a  matter  to  get.  The  Good  Book 
calls  the  great  crowd,  the  masses,  “the  common 
people.”  The  uncommon  people  would  hardly 
make  a  congregation.  One  of  the  great  givers 
of  America  was  found  by  his  pastor  kneeling  at 
the  altar  of  the  church  he  had  grandly  helped  to 
build. 


28 


SENT  FORTH 


“Why  are  you  here?”  asked  the  kindly 
shepherd,  later  Bishop  McIntyre. 

“For  my  own  soul’s  good,”  was  the  ready 
answer. 

The  personal  equation  was  more  than  wealth. 
Pastor  and  layman  are  now  within  the  veil 
where  gold  is  dust.  To  find  one’s  self  caring 
overmuch  for  place  or  fame  or  possessions  is  a 
matter  to  be  gotten  over. 

“It  is  the  way  the  Master  went. 

Should  not  the  servant  tread  it  still?” 

One  thing  need  never  be  forgotten — the 
kindly  spirit  of  one’s  father’s  house.  How  few 
the  thorns  among  the  roses!  As  out  in  the 
great  world  we  find  people  hard  to  please,  ready 
to  suspect,  fires  in  their  eyes,  a  clinch  in  their 
fingers,  we  may  be  glad  it  was  not  so  at  home. 
It  does  not  happen  that  religion  is  a  gospel. 
The  earth  is  weary  for  glad  tidings.  The  true 
preacher  is  a  welcome  body.  Nor  is  kindliness 
a  garment.  It  is  a  tang  of  the  blood.  If  children 
and  dogs  do  not  love  us,  it  is  well  to  consider. 

As  no  one  should  need  telling,  pretense  or 
affectation  is  folly  and  waste.  If  one  has  little 
of  what  the  world  thinks  wealth,  he  should 
enjoy  it.  There  is  no  device  of  the  devil  to  make 
the  sun  go  down  at  noon  like  sham  or  jealousy 
or  envy.  The  first  syllable  of  being  is  to  be.  We 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION  29 


rarely  fool  the  neighbors.  Why  try  it?  If  that 
pride  is  folly  sinks  deeper  than  that  pride  is  sin, 
let  the  drill  drive  down.  The  good  time  and 
strength  wasted  among  men  at  appearing 
would  double  the  sweetness  and  the  worth  of 
living.  The  sun  pays  scant  attention  to  its 
reputation.  It  is  the  sun.  Daylight  is.  The 
thing  we  are  might  walk  alone. 

The  standardizing  of  duty  is  a  lesson  to  learn 
early.  If  a  thing  is  right,  the  battle  should  be 
over.  Some  rumble  and  echo  here  and  there 
might  linger,  but  the  lightning  should  be  faded. 
In  every  minister’s  life  there  are  stale  hours, 
waste  places,  the  valley  and  the  shadow.  He 
will  not  always  enjoy  religion.  He  will  need  to 
learn  over  and  over  again  that  religion  means  in 
its  primer  “to  bind.”  If  he  finds  this  out  in  the 
morning,  it  will  be  several  hours  longer  until 
night.  The  outstanding  sermon  of  the  Great 
War  is  the  Day  of  Judgment.  To  set  right  in 
the  earth  so  that  it  will  bear  fruit  is  worth  all 
the  pain  and  tears.  Justice  is  the  habitation  of 
God’s  throne.  As  anthracite,  dull  and  dis¬ 
figuring  not  rarely,  yet  light  and  heat  and  power 
are  in  its  keeping. 

Possibly  the  planetary,  the  democratic,  the 
kindly,  and  the  true  are  all  at  bloom  in  our 
lives  with  yet  more  besides.  Or  we  may  have 
been  reared  more  tenderly  than  others,  and  be 


30 


SENT  FORTH 


something  of  a  sensitive  plant.  And  human 
life  is  not  yet  a  conservatory.  So  our  task  is 
not  a  little  to  unlearn.  The  world  is  a  thing  of 
the  open  air.  It  is  rarely  under  roof.  There 
will  be  wind  in  our  curls.  In  the  Civil  War  and 
the  great  World  War,  to  the  surprise  of  all  con¬ 
cerned,  the  supposedly  pampered  youth  of  the 
cities  made  wonderful  soldiers.  The  heroes  of 
the  Argonne  were  largely  a  town-bred  crowd.  It 
is  not  ruin,  always,  to  unlearn. 

Some  of  us  may  have  been  so  unfortunate  as 
never  to  have  been  poor.  There  was  always 
meal  in  our  barrel.  Peter  of  Russia  was  Peter 
the  Great,  that  as  a  common  sailor  he  toiled  in 
the  Holland  dockyards,  drudging  for  his  people. 
The  world  is  not  sure  about  socialism,  but 
when  a  millionaire  forgets  his  gold  in  men, 
women,  and  children,  it  has  its  hand  to  its  ear. 
The  array  of  dollar-a-year  men  in  all  lands  of 
earth  has  taken  vast  tarnish  from  its  treasures. 
It  is  not  money,  but  the  love  of  money,  that  is 
the  root  of  evils. 

Possibly  too  school  advantages  may  not  have 
been  of  the  best.  One  so  gets  years  ahead  of  his 
neighbor.  The  poor  fellow  can  never  catch  up. 
His  golden  spoon  was  failure.  For  opportunity 
there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But  if  he 
does  not  manage  to  forget  his  better  chances, 
his  neighbor’s  crown  may  be  of  diamonds  when 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION  31 


his  own  is  tin.  How  to  learn  and  not  to  ad¬ 
vertise  is  an  art.  The  weakness  of  one’s 
strength  may  be  unsuspected,  as  the  rose  on  the 
consumptive’s  cheek  is  herald  of  the  tomb.  It 
was  a  well-remembered  saying  of  Miner  Ray¬ 
mond,  the  white-haired  prophet  of  the  Evanston 
campus,  that  “No  man  knows  till  he  knows  that 
he  knows.”  To  greatly  excel  is  to  be  greatly 
tempted.  It  is  always  sad  when  an  Eden  is  lost 
in  memory  of  a  fall.  One  has  not  been  at  school 
while  his  schooling  shows. 

Who  said  anything  about  awkwardness  and 
the  slovenly?  The  neighbors  did.  Those  who 
had  no  choice  but  to  meet  him,  see  him,  hear 
him  preach,  live  with  him  till  moving  time.  No, 
his  coat  never  fitted,  his  trousers  were  too  short, 
his  cuffs  and  the  laundry  were  not  over  friendly, 
his  hands  were  paws,  his  feet  were  useful 
mainly  in  reaching  the  ground,  and  his  hair 
was  a  jungle,  but  that  was  too  personal,  to 
mention.  It  was  the  nondescript  that  got  into 
his  mind.  He  could  hardly  read  his  text  without 
some  sort  of  a  blunder,  and  a  hymn  was  an 
early  aeroplaning  over  the  Atlantic.  He  gave 
no  sign  that  there  had  been  anything  new  found 
out  about  the  Bible  in  a  generation.  He 
bandied  personalities  and  barnyard  rhetoric,  as 
if  men  and  women  were  built  of  wood.  He  said 
so  many  things  that  occurred  to  him.  He  went 


32 


SENT  FORTH 


into  the  pulpit  with  a  slouch.  He  preached  too 
long  as  with  little  to  say.  His  illustrations  had 
been  standardized.  They  were  from  books. 
Men  remembered  rather  than  listened.  The 
church  was  a  hall  of  echoes.  Then  he  wondered 
that  being  a  good  man,  and  orthodox,  and 
having  a  nice  family,  he  moved  so  often.  He 
suspected  the  episcopacy.  His  churches  were 
hard  to  serve.  It  did  not  occur  to  him  that  the 
personal  equation  had  him,  and  was  holding 
him  fast. 

“Whatever  you  do,  don’t  send  us  a  little 
fellow.”  “He  is  all  right,  but  things  are  not  well 
with  her.”  “We  know  him  too  well.”  “He 
undoes  his  pulpit  in  the  parish.”  “He  turns  on 
the  waterworks.”  “He  is  careless  about  his 
debts.”  And  all  the  time  the  good  man  never 
dreamed  that  the  personal  equation  was  on  the 
job. 

A  commendably  popular  pastor  once  said, 
“My  people  will  do  anything  for  me  but  be 
good.”  It  was  in  one  sentence  a  pleasing  and 
pitiful  thing.  The  personal  equation  works  for 
a  man  and  against  him.  It  is  the  business  of  the 
minister  to  be  as  attractive  as  he  can  make  him¬ 
self.  The  whitest  soul  that  ever  lived  is  said  to 
have  drawn  men  unto  him.  With  Omnipotence 
in  his  fingers,  the  great  God  leads.  The  Mighty 
shepherds  men.  Power  to  entice  is  the  super- 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION  33 


lative  dynamic.  John  the  Baptist  in  raiment 
of  camel’s  hair  with  leathern  girdle  about  his 
loins,  and  eating  locusts  and  wild  honey,  was 
perfectly  well  dressed  and  fed,  for  the  wilder¬ 
ness.  Jesus  walked  otherwhere,  and  did  not 
wear  leather  and  camel’s  hair.  Angels  dwell  in 
glory.  The  preacher  who  does  not  dress,  eat, 
live,  work,  and  speak  as  pleasingly  as  in  him 
lies  falls  from  grace.  What  he  is  should  never 
quarrel  with  what  he  says. 

Of  course  men  impose  upon  good  nature. 
They  are  impertinent  with  God  Almighty. 
“Because  sentence  against  an  evil  work  is  not 
executed  speedily,  therefore  the  heart  of  the 
sons  of  men  is  fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil.” 
They  will  do  anything  for  him  but  be  good.  Yet 
it  is  not  written  that  God,  who  is  Love,  is  ever 
anything  else  than  love.  To  any  intelligence 
but  a  sinner  God  is  always  attractive.  It  is  of 
the  misery  of  the  lost  that  they  cannot  hate. 
Hate  is  the  citizen  of  but  one  world.  Neither 
heaven  nor  hell  will  have  it.  It  must  make  its 
home  on  earth.  Love  is  forever  of  the  immortal. 

When  the  Rabbi  of  Israel  told  us  to  love  our 
neighbor,  he  told  us  how:  we  are  to  love  him 
as  ourselves.  We  are  to  love  God  by  the  measure 
of  our  own  heart  and  mind  and  strength.  He 
who  will  not  consider  the  personal  equation  can 
love  neither  God  nor  men.  The  world  is  much 


34 


SENT  FORTH 


in  need  of  a  sanctified  selfishness.  Religion  has 
never  worn  its  robes  as  it  should.  Its  report  of 
the  promised  land  has  been  very  honestly  that 
of  the  ten  spies.  “It  is  all  fine  enough,  but  its 
cities  have  walls,  and  there  are  giants  in  the 
land,  and  we  are  as  grasshoppers.”  The 
minister  is  as  Joshua  and  Caleb,  though  as  one 
to  five,  and  though  the  congregation  shall  stone 
him  with  stones.  The  ten  spies  died  without 
the  promised  land.  The  congregation  that  took 
up  stones  dug  their  graves  with  them.  It  is  the 
personal  equation  that  companies  with  the  glory 
of  the  Lord. 


i 


BLUE  MONDAY 


When,  and  where,  and  how  we  are,  are  of  small 
moment  as  compared  with  what  we  are. 

John  Wesley  did  not  monopolize  the  world  as  a 
parish. 

To  get  a  congregation  of  uncommon  people  one 
would  need  the  whole  county. 

Kindliness  is  more  than  clothes.  It  is  a  tang  of 
the  blood.  If  children  and  dogs  do  not  love  us,  it  is 
well  to  consider. 

There  is  no  device  of  the  devil  to  make  the  sun  go 
down  at  noon  like  sham  or  jealousy  or  envy. 

Men  rarely  fool  the  neighbors.  They  should  be 
too  wise  to  try. 

The  world  is  a  thing  of  the  open  air.  There  will 
be  wind  in  our  curls. 

For  opportunity  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead. 

The  weakness  of  one’s  strength  may  be  unsus¬ 
pected,  as  the  rose  on  the  consumptive’s  cheek  is 
herald  of  the  tomb. 

It  is  always  sad  when  an  Eden  is  lost  in  a  memory 
of  a  fall. 

With  Omnipotence  in  his  fingers,  the  great  God 
shepherds  men.  Power  to  entice  is  the  superlative 
dynamic. 

What  one  is  should  never  quarrel  with  what  he 
says. 


35 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  PREACHER’S  IDEALS 

The  ancient  word  for  prophet  was  Seer.  “He 
that  is  now  called  a  prophet  was  aforetime 
called  a  Seer.”  We  think  of  one  that  tells. 
The  older  world  considered  one  who  saw.  In  a 
day  when  press  and  public  have  their  opinion  of 
ministerial  efficiency,  and  preachers  are  on  the 
grill,  it  may  be  some  of  our  troubles  are  with  the 
seeing.  The  preachers’  ideals  are  no  small 
affair. 

Some  one  said  to  a  great  painter  that  his 
sunsets  were  impossible;  no  mortal  eye  had  ever 
seen  their  like.  “Do  you  not  wish  you  might?” 
retorted  the  artist.  The  painter  is  vision  more 
than  facile  hand,  or  canvas,  or  color.  The 
preacher  is  vision  more  than  culture,  pulpit,  or 
speech.  “Your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall 
prophesy,  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams, 
your  young  men  shall  see  visions.”  If  every 
child  of  God  is  to  see  visions,  his  ministers 
cannot  be  blind.  Beyond  any  other,  the 
preacher  must  be  a  man  of  dreams. 

To  the  age  we  live  in  ideals  are  hardly 
indigenous.  There  has  not  been  found  among 

36 


THE  PREACHER’S  IDEALS 


37 


those  born  of  woman  a  great  poet  or  a  great 
philosopher  in  an  unconscionably  long  time. 
The  latest  climax  in  literature  is  the  short  story. 
The  novelist  runs  to  quantity.  Copy  for  the 
printer  is  vastly  much  the  eclipse  of  fame  and 
the  epitaph  of  worth.  The  multitude  is  at 
school  to  the  moving  picture  and  the  morning 
paper.  The  historian  of  the  times  is  the 
reporter.  The  ancient  pride  of  men  was  the 
sword  and  is  now  the  lead  pencil.  The  great 
god  Business  is  in  his  holy  temple.  The 
argument  against  war  is  not  its  wrong  but  its 
economic  waste.  The  conscience  of  its  day 
wrestled  with  slavery,  to  see  it  thrive;  its 
extinction  becoming  a  military  necessity,  it 
died  in  a  day.  The  American  saloon  is  having  a 
like  funeral,  but  the  undertaker  is  the  American 
dollar.  The  mighty  argument  against  pro¬ 
hibition  is  the  shift  or  loss  of  capital.  Evil 
rarely  sickens  anywhere,  that  it  is  vile,  but  that 
it  does  not  pay.  Alexander  Dowie  and  Mary 
Baker  Eddy  lived  and  died  appreciated.  Good 
citizenship  and  a  decent  reputation  are  religion 
to  millions.  In  the  boyhood  of  the  writer  his 
wise  old  father  was  wont  to  note,  “The  marble 
fingers  of  the  graveyard  all  point  up.”  The 
preacher  will  hardly  find  his  ideals  in  his  age. 
He  must  gather  them  from  the  Eternal  Quiet 
where  God  dwells  or  be  as  other  men  are. 


38 


SENT  FORTH 


It  is  usually  a  compliment  to  be  considered 
up  to  date.  To  the  minister  that  is  to  be  behind 
his  date.  The  architect  is  not  up  to  his  bridge, 
the  civil  engineer  to  his  railroad,  the  merchant 
to  his  store,  or  the  general  to  his  army.  Each 
is  ahead  of  his  job.  If  not,  he  is  behind  it. 
His  day’s  work  is  to  be  in  front.  The  herald  of 
good  news  is  above  his  times;  beyond  them,  not 
up  to  them. 

How  about  the  rarity  of  accurate  Bible 
interpretation?  How  many  ministers  make 
lasting  impressions  as  expositors?  Our  real 
theological  seminaries,  in  pitifully  many  cases, 
are  the  commentaries  and  teachers’  helps  of  the 
Sunday  school.  Whether  standardized  thinking 
spells  either  progress  or  power  is  hardly  a 
problem.  Who  knows  but  that  the  current 
epidemic  of  religious  humbug  is  the  pestilence 
after  famine  of  doctrine,  because  it  is  dry,  and 
of  theology,  supposedly  a  bore?  Doctrine  is 
simply  teaching.  Theology  is  a  word  about 
God.  It  would  seem  that  to  a  minister  their 
mastery  went  with  the  day’s  work.  A  preacher 
who  is  not  a  theologian  should  be  ashamed  to 
draw  his  salary.  Who  would  dare  say  our 
hysteria  over  modern  scholarship  might  not  be 
less  acute  were  we  ourselves  masters  of  our 
mighty  book?  The  pressure  of  executive  work, 
the  routine  of  engagements,  the  glare  of  public- 


THE  PREACHER’S  IDEALS 


39 


ity,  the  van  and  vacation  habits  of  the  day,  the 
secularizing  of  ideals,  explain  much.  An  old- 
time  prophet  on  the  peak  of  a  hill  received  one 
day  a  message:  “Thou  man  of  God,  the  King 
hath  said,  4 Come  down.’  ”  As  never  in  the 
ages,  the  world  is  king:  It  bids  the  man  of 
God,  “Come  down.”  It  is  better  if  he  shall 
stay  up. 

What  shall  the  preacher  preach?  The  answer 
is,  4 ‘Preach  the  thing  the  people  have  the  right 
to  expect.”  Pertinence  would  save  many  a 
pitiful  sermon.  A  wise  man  noting  a  very 
uncertain  effort  on  a  certain  occasion  said, 
“That  brother  has  a  genius  for  the  inappro¬ 
priate.”  The  big  business  not  rarely  done  on  a 
small  ministerial  capital  has  usually  a  ready 
explanation:  the  man  has  the  wit  to  preach 
appropriately.  The  great  Napoleon  rocked  the 
empires  of  the  earth  as  in  a  cradle  by  being 
strongest  at  the  point  of  contact.  The  preach¬ 
er’s  campaign  is  going  on  a  long  week  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  hours,  and  a  possible 
eight  half  hours  are  his  points  of  contact,  his 
victories  or  defeats.  Knowing  this  as  well  as 
himself,  his  people  gather  looking  for  smoke, 
eyes  eager  for  banners,  and  “the  dread  cir¬ 
cumstance  of  war,”  and  “circumstance  of 
war”  is  what  they  ought  to  get.  The  sermon 
that  is  not  an  event  is  a  failure.  When  homi- 


40 


SENT  FORTH 


letic  graveyards  tell  the  truth  a  usual  epitaph 
will  be,  “All  quiet  along  the  Potomac.” 

The  preacher  commonly  gets  what  he  goes 
after.  We  may  think  just  that  highly  of  him. 
An  ecclesiastical  Nimrod,  he  goes  gunning  for 
the  respectful  attention  of  his  ordinary  con¬ 
gregation,  and  has  it.  He  aims  at  a  fairly  decent 
sermonic  deliverance  twice  on  Sunday,  and 
brings  it  down.  He  goes  after  such  an  influence 
in  his  church  and  community  as  will  maintain 
or  improve  its  standing,  and  he  gets  that.  He 
strives  for  a  reasonably  correct  ethical  life 
among  his  people;  he  establishes  institutional 
churches;  he  keeps  close  watch  on  mayor. 
City  Council,  and  Board  of  Education;  he 
smites  the  saloon  hip  and  thigh;  the  thing  he 
cold-bloodedly  goes  after  comes  home  in  his  bag. 
Did  he  go  after  six  per  cent  increase  in  his 
membership,  legal  rate  of  interest  as  against  his 
current  one  per  cent,  the  rarity  of  his  failure 
would  surprise  him.  To  live  for  a  thing  is 
deadly.  The  one  great  test  in  business,  culture, 
politics,  human  life  generally,  is  results.  The 
faithful  people  expect  results.  The  appropriate 
thing  is  results. 

Concretely,  appropriate  preaching  is  some¬ 
thing  optimistic  about  Thanksgiving  Day,  a 
word  of  the  incarnation  at  Christmas,  the  hope 
and  glory  of  beginnings  at  New  Year,  a  vision 


THE  PREACHER’S  IDEALS 


41 


of  the  living  Christ  at  Easter,  the  ministry 
of  the  summertime  in  June,  the  benediction  of 
the  ordinary  after  vacation,  and  if  sadly  the 
angel  of  sable  wing  is  abroad  in  the  land,  a  tale 
of  the  world  that  passes  not,  where  “Day  shall 
break,  and  shadows  flee.”  It  means  forever¬ 
more  to  recognize  the  congregation  that  is  on 
hand.  Rich  or  poor,  ignorant  or  learned,  old 
or  young,  sinner  or  saint,  each  has  ears  to  hear 
and  a  soul  under  his  coat.  Preaching  for  people 
and  preaching  to  them  are  two  things.  To  say 
the  proper  word  at  the  time  the  people  look  for 
it,  and  after  some  little  fashion,  in  the  way  they 
like  it,  is  to  be  two  thirds  sure  of  a  good  sermon. 
That  motion  in  the  Preachers’  Meeting  as  to 
Sunday  baseball  would  have  been  wiser  had 
there  been  no  snow  on  the  ground.  More  good 
men  fail  than  one  would  think  from  their  “genius 
for  the  inappropriate.” 

One  of  the  temptations  a  preacher  must 
conquer,  as  if  it  might  be  the  devil,  is  any 
disposition  to  say  little  things  in  a  big  way.  It 
is  one  variety  of  mendacity.  His  high  calling, 
solemn  environment,  the  tragedy  of  human 
living,  the  dread  secrets  of  immortality  speak 
loudly  of  the  large  and  great.  The  pulpit  is 
surely  a  step  higher  than  the  platform.  More 
than  one  good  man  and  minister  of  God  has 
been  known  to  gnash  his  teeth  in  sorrow  that 


42 


SENT  FORTH 


lie  found  a  reputation  as  a  wit,  a  lecturer,  an 
entertainer,  and  lost  the  Himalayan  atmosphere 
of  the  Prophet  of  the  Eternal.  Like  Runyan’s 
mighty  man,  the  minister  is  one  that  tumbles 
mountains  around  with  words.  He  falls  to 
trifle.  It  is  not  a  harsh  or  thoughtless  word 
should  one  say  the  modern  ministry  is  ill  of  the 
ordinary.  Its  strength  is  of  the  hills. 

The  preacher  should  preach  that  only  which 
burns  in  his  own  heart.  Every  sermon  should 
be  a  message.  The  other  thing  may  be  oratory, 
lecturing,  dramatics,  but  it  is  not  preaching. 
If  so  be  the  pulpiteer  cannot  enthuse  his  soul 
except  over  Browning,  or  some  late  publication, 
he  may  still  preach.  The  Bible  has  no  monopoly 
of  the  gospel.  If  salvation  is  nebulous  and 
sociology  keeps  him  alert,  let  him  talk  the  thing 
that  stirs  him.  A  live  gospel  of  the  birds  is 
better  than  a  mummy  gospel  of  the  Lord. 
Momentum  may  make  up  for  weight.  A  candle 
may  be  fired  through  boards.  The  great  God 
leaves  room  in  his  universe  for  dead  worlds  and 
reflected  light.  We  are  all  glad  of  the  moon, 
though  mostly  we  are  sleeping  as  she  shines. 

The  institutional  church  is  the  life  belt  of 
religion  in  many  minds  just  now,  and  in  any 
storm  where  needed  it  should  be  girded  on. 
However,  it  is  perfectly  easy  to  be  manager  of 
such  a  projection,  do  enough  work  for  two  men. 


THE  PREACHER’S  IDEALS 


43 


die  before  one’s  time,  and  never  rise  beyond  the 
glory  of  a  floorwalker.  Would  the  institutional 
church  really  sell  a  few  more  goods  in  souls  made 
white  and  lives  transformed,  we  might  see  more 
hope  in  it.  When  a  man’s  heart  is  full  with 
soup-kitchen,  bowling  alley,  reading  room, 
rummage  sale,  dispensary,  he  need  think  no 
shame.  He  is  neither  parrot,  impersonator, 
echo,  nor  phonograph.  He  is  true  soul  doing 
man  fashion  the  will  of  the  Master  as  made 
known  to  him.  Nevertheless,  loaves  and  fishes 
were  never  staples  to  the  Nazarene.  Not  even 
miracles  went  far  with  him.  Life  belts  do  not 
conquer  worlds.  The  drift  of  ministers  to 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  work  has 
been  inevitable  for  half  a  decade,  and  a  bene¬ 
diction  beyond  words.  As  a  perennial  shelf  for 
prophets,  there  is  more  to  be  said.  The  record 
as  to  selling  out  apostles  for  a  supply  of 
deacons  is  not  encouraging.  The  church  as  a 
collection  agency  is  hardly  more  hopeful. 
Whether  we  can  save  a  wTorld  when  we  do  not 
save  our  neighbors  is  a  matter  for  fasting  and 
prayer.  Absolute  losses  within  the  gates  while 
building  other  gates  miles  down  the  road  may 
be  quite  normal.  And  they  may  be  an  arrow 
that  flieth  by  day. 

One  reason  why  often  city  preachers  fail  on 
going  to  the  country,  and  without  going  to  the 


44 


SENT  FOETH 


country  fail  also,  is  just  here.  They  have 
become  conventionalized  by  doing  something  of 
everything.  They  remind  the  people  of  a 
machine.  The  very  shake  of  their  hand  speaks 
the  undying  affection  of  a  pump  handle.  They 
do  so  many  things  that  no  thing  matters.  They 
let  their  churches  drag  them  into  a  dozen 
services  on  Sunday,  and  their  heart  sleeps  while 
hand  and  foot  and  tongue  work  overtime. 
There  are  things  a  preacher  may  do  with  his  left 
hand,  but  preaching  is  not  one  of  them. 

Lyman  Abbott  says  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
that  he  would  usually  not  select  his  text  for  a 
sermon  till  a  few  hours  before  preaching.  He 
wanted  to  be  sure  of  saying  the  thing  fresh  at 
his  heart.  The  sermons  of  Bishop  Simpson, 
wonderful  to  hear  and  seldom  read,  took  for 
target  the  heart  of  the  common  people.  A  few 
uncommon,  exotic  souls  read  sermons.  Thou¬ 
sands  hear  them.  John  Bunyan,  dreamer, 
novelist,  philosopher,  has  given  the  world  the 
best  definition  of  a  preacher  in  all  literature. 
“Now  I  saw  in  my  dream  that  the  pilgrims  went 
on  and  Great  Heart  went  before  them.” 

“See  here  how  then  the  child  doth  play  the  man, 
And  weak  grows  strong,  when  Great  Heart  leads 
the  van/’ 

No  man  will  wisely  say  that  any  preacher 
should  content  himself  with  a  low  intellectual 


THE  PREACHER’S  IDEALS 


45 


ideal  of  preaching.  Nevertheless,  for  him  to 
preach  anything  he  does  not  feel,  to  say  great 
words  of  that  which  is  little  to  him,  is  a  sight  to 
make  devils  grin  and  the  angels  of  high  heaven 
weep.  Dr.  Frank  Gunsaulus  with  solemn 
earnestness  was  wont  to  tell  how  in  the  midst 
of  his  ministry  the  valley  of  sorrow  brought  him 
visions  of  the  hills  of  God.  Newell  Dwight 
Hillis,  literary  master,  turns  heartily  to  evangel¬ 
istic  leadership.  Dawson’s  Evangelistic  Note 
is  a  monument  to  the  cry  of  a  deeper  soul.  It 
was  John  Wesley,  preacher  and  missionary, 
whose  heart  was  strangely  warmed  at  the 
meeting  in  London  town.  Saul  of  Tarsus 
became  Paul  the  apostle  that  he  traveled  the 
Damascus  road.  No  man  really  preaches 
except  as  he  meets  God.  There  is  no  vision  but 
to  the  heart  that  burns. 

In  the  old  tale  of  Samson  is  a  hint  at  tragedy 
too  deep  for  words.  ‘‘And  he  wist  not  that  the 
Lord  was  departed  from  him.”  That  the  Lord 
may  dwell  with  a  man,  that  a  man  may  know 
that  the  Lord  dwells  with  him,  that  the  Lord 
may  depart  from  a  man — these  are  mighty  and 
terrible  conceptions.  But  that  the  Lord  should 
depart  from  a  man  and  the  man  not  know  it, 
is  the  terror  unspeakable.  To  have  a  Samson 
reputation,  and  to  feel  like  Samson,  when 
Samson  is  walking  around  dead,  is  the  crum- 


46 


SENT  FORTH 


bling  edge  of  doom.  The  fall  is  far.  How  sad  and 
pitiful  to  be  preaching  out  of  a  chilled  or  lost 
enthusiasm,  to  echo  the  ringing  heraldry  of  other 
years,  to  mumble  and  chatter  where  once  was 
the  shout  of  them  that  sing,  to  say  to  wide- 
eyed  men  that  twilight  is  the  blaze  of  noon,  to 
declare  the  Lord  is  in  his  holy  temple  when  the 
rustle  of  his  garments  has  vanished  into  the 
night!  That,  judged  by  results,  so  many  of  us 
did  our  best  work  when  we  were  boys  at  the 
preaching  business,  is  a  story  for  the  shadow  and 
the  silence  where  God  dwells. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


Copy  for  the  printer  is  vastly  much  the  eclipse  of 
fame  and  the  epitaph  of  worth. 

Evil  rarely  sickens  anywhere,  that  it  is  vile,  but 
that  it  does  not  pay. 

“The  marble  fingers  of  the  graveyard  all  point 
up.”  One  hardly  gets  his  ideals  in  his  age. 

The  preacher  who  is  not  a  theologian  should  be 
ashamed  to  draw  his  salary. 

Pertinence  would  save  many  a  pitiful  sermon. 

The  sermon  that  is  not  an  event  is  a  failure. 

To  live  for  a  thing  is  deadly. 

The  modern  ministry  is  ill  of  the  ordinary. 

A  live  gospel  of  the  birds  is  better  than  a  mummy 
gospel  of  the  Lord. 

The  record  as  to  selling  out  apostles  for  a  supply  of 
deacons,  is  not  encouraging.  Life  belts  do  not 
conquer  worlds. 

There  are  many  things  one  may  do  with  his  left 
hand,  but  preaching  is  not  of  them. 

To  have  a  Samson  reputation,  and  walk  around 
dead,  is  the  crumbling  edge  of  doom. 


47 


CHAPTER  IV 


STAR  PREACHERS 

Ministers,  in  some  markets,  go  cheap.  It  is 
well  to  know  their  worth.  When  we  are  told, 
“He.  .  .  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his  right 
hand”  we  spell  the  ministers  of  God  as  vastly 
more  than  ordinary.  In  the  Bible  symbolism  is 
a  tale  of  their  surpassing  dignity.  They  rise 
above  all  cheapening.  We  dare  not  hold  them 
commonplace. 

Symbols  are  signs  of  things;  Bible  symbols  of 
great  things.  Seven  churches  are  all  churches; 
every  vital  detail  being  found  in  that  selection. 
Seven  lamps  of  fire  are  the  seven  spirits  of  God 
sent  out  into  all  the  earth,  the  rounded  com¬ 
pleted  teachings  of  God  which  dispel  all  dark¬ 
ness.  Seven  seals  are  the  ineffable  wisdom  of 
God  which  hides  till  the  fitting  hour  to  reveal. 
Golden  vials  are  said  explicitly  to  hold  the 
prayers  of  the  saints;  prayers  are  things  worth 
keeping.  Great  beasts  of  varied  descriptions 
are  mighty  influences  toward  lower  conditions; 
animals  are  inferior  to  men.  Perhaps  wealth 
and  rank  and  fashion  and  empire  are  the 
masterful  affairs  which,  brutally  strong,  are 

48 


STAR  PREACHERS 


49 


yet  of  a  cheaper  order.  Real  genuine  conditions 
of  human  life  and  progress  are  set  forth  in  these 
striking  Bible  pictures.  The  only  caution  we 
need  to  exercise  is  in  finding  what  they  actually 
do  represent.  The  wise  one  who  said,  “The 
book  of  Revelation  finds  men  crazy  or  makes 
them  so,”  had  this  in  mind.  Each  and  all 
mean  something.  The  seven  stars  held  in  the 
right  hand  of  the  Lord  of  men  stand  for  a  glory 
good  to  remember. 

The  dignity  of  the  ministry  is  seen  not  only 
in  the  technical  symbol  but  also  in  Him  who 
sends  it.  When  the  crazy  girl  in  Philippi  said 
that  the  servants  of  the  most  high  God  were  in 
town  Paul  was  grieved.  Whom  it  may  be  that 
feed  us  compliments  makes  some  difference.  It 
is  the  Son  of  God,  God  himself  manifest,  who 
holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his  hand.  God 
manifest  is  always  a  more  precious  concept 
than  God  existent.  God  existent  is  forever 
academic.  God  manifest  is  at  home  in  any 
human  soul.  So  we  call  ourselves  Christians  as 
of  more  gracious  content  than  simply  followers 
of  God.  Christ  is  God  of  the  noontime,  the 
high  tide,  the  mountain  top.  With  our  thought 
of  God  set  at  its  zenith  we  can  get  no  further  in 
a  great  notion  of  what  it  means  to  be  a  minister. 
It  is  God  of  the  glorious  garment  down  to  the 
foot,  God  of  the  golden  girdle,  God  of  the  snow- 


50 


SENT  FORTH 


white  head  and  hair,  God  whose  eyes  are  flame, 
God  whose  feet  are  as  burnished  brass,  God 
wThose  face  is  as  the  sun  shining  in  its  strength, 
God  of  the  voice  of  many  waters,  who  held  the 
seven  stars  in  his  right  hand.  A  minister  may 
doubtfully  think  little  of  himself.  The  neighbors 
may  not  rate  him  high.  He  may  come  to  his 
own  and  his  own  receive  him  not.  But  to  the 
great  God  he  is  abundantly, and  forever  worth¬ 
while.  “He. .  .  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his 
right  hand.” 

Again,  the  dignity  of  the  ministry  is  seen  in 
its  commanding  use.  As  the  candlestick  holds 
the  light,  so  in  his  right  hand  God  holds  the 
seven  stars.  In  great  content  he  makes  himself 
a  candlestick  for  his  ministers.  The  Bartholdi 
Statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York  harbor  has  a 
torch  in  her  right  hand.  Liberty  is  not  fool¬ 
proof.  She  is  Liberty  enlightening.  Liberty  is 
not  obvious.  Men  may  stumble  over  her.  She 
must  swing  her  lantern.  Glorious  France,  the 
great  republic,  the  mighty  world,  the  city  of 
New  York,  the  art  of  the  sculptor,  the  towering 
statue,  the  hopes  and  fears  of  freemen  every 
where,  all  wait  upon  the  flickering  torch.  So 
the  great  God  is  happy  at  breaking  into  flame 
in  his  ministers.  “We  are  ambassadors.” 
“As  though  God  were  entreating  you,”  said  a 
Master  of  the  order.  WTith  Omnipotence  on  the 


STAR  PREACHERS 


51 


leash,  why  is  it  not  frankly  used?  Earthquakes, 
great  voices  out  of  the  sky,  handwriting  on  the 
wall,  would  surely  fashion  as  wax  the  stony 
hearts  of  men?  Not  when  God  has  his  ministers. 

It  is  they  that  go  into  all  the  world  to  preach 
his  gospel.  Why  are  miracles  forever  few  and 
temporary?  God  has  his  ministers.  Why  does 
the  second  coming  of  the  Lord  tarry,  and 
why  is  it  coterminous  with  the  end  of  the 
world?  God  has  his  ministers.  Why  do  not 
angels  preach?  God  has  better  ministers. 
Angels  might  bungle  at  it.  Ministers  are  not  a 
makeshift.  They  are  God’s  wisdom  for  the 
ages.  They  are  the  tool  God  is  serenely  willing 
to  stand  or  fall  with.  “He.  .  .  holdeth  the 
seven  stars  in  his  right  hand.” 

The  dignity  of  the  ministry  is  seen  in  its  use 
of  human  superlative.  There  are  seven  stars. 
It  took  seven  types  of  men  to  make  a  full- 
orbed  ministry.  No  one  man  can  be  a  model 
minister.  It  takes  seven.  In  seven  men  one 
only  is  the  composite  ideal. 

“  ’Tis  not  a  cause  of  small  import 
The  pastor’s  care  demands. 

But  what  might  fill  an  angel’s  heart, 

And  filled  a  Saviour’s  hands.” 

There  are  diversities  of  gifts,  difference  of 
administrations,  diversities  of  operations,  man- 


52 


SENT  FORTH 


ifestations  of  the  Spirit,  the  word  of  wisdom, 
knowledge,  faith,  gifts  of  healing,  working  of 
miracles,  prophecy,  interpretations  of  tongues; 
no  one  man  can  fulfill  the  mighty  calling  of  the 
minister  of  God.  He  may  turn  hopeless  at  once. 
Only  the  bottom  best  that  in  him  lies  may  be 
his  dream  and  prayer.  Even  then  he  is  but  one 
seventh  of  the  model  minister.  He  is  an  un¬ 
profitable  servant.  That  which  was  his  duty 
to  do  only  hath  he  done. 

The  dignity  of  the  ministry  is  seen  in  its 
expansiveness.  Bible  stars  are  merely  points  of 
light.  The  author  of  Genesis  says  “He  [God] 
made  the  stars  also.”  His  world  was  geocentric. 
Stars  were  a  convenience,  an  annex.  We 
know  the  stars  are  worlds.  To  the  Genesis 
writer  they  were  an  appendix  to  the  earth.  The 
science  of  Patmos  was  not  more  advanced. 
The  stars  were  but  symbols  of  light,  and  leading, 
and  plenty,  and  kindness.  To  us  they  spell  a 
universe  hardly  less  overwhelming  than  the 
Eternal.  So  in  this  symbol  of  the  stars  is  seen  a 
ministry  that  will  never  grow  less  but  forever 
widen  with  the  years.  There  have  been  rain¬ 
bows  while  there  have  been  mist  and  sun.  But 
on  a  day  God  gave  the  rainbow  a  new  message. 
It  was  henceforth  not  only  bow  but  promise. 
The  earth  was  no  more  to  be  shaken  out  of  its 
place.  So  as  the  stars  grow  on  us,  and  the  rain- 


STAR  PREACHERS 


53 


bow  grows  on  us,  the  ministry  grows  on  us.  Its 
To-morrow  is  forever  mightier  than  its  To-day. 
If  one  sometimes  queries  whether  ministers  are 
to  lose  their  mission  in  the  crushing  egotism  of 
the  earth,  he  may  assure  himself  God’s  ministers 
are  an  immortal  breed.  The  room  of  him  who 
falls  is  taken  by  the  comrade  at  his  heels,  and 
the  victory  draws  ever  nearer. 

“What,  then,  is  he  whose  scorn  I  dread, 

Whose  wrath  or  hate  make  me  afraid? 

A  man;  an  heir  to  death;  a  slave  to  sin; 

A  bubble  on  the  wave.” 

Bible  stars  stand  for  the  glorious.  That  he 
calleth  the  stars  by  their  names  is  the  glory  of 
God.  That  ministers  are  ranked  as  stars  is 
their  glory.  Bible  stars  are  useful.  They  give 
light,  rule  the  night,  follow  the  seasons,  guide 
the  journeys  of  men,  awaken  their  minds, 
declare  the  glory  of  God.  So  the  ministers,  as 
the  stars,  earn  their  keep.  The  pastor  is  a 
minister,  one  who  serves.  Clergymen  are 
granted  favors  as  being  of  worth  in  social  and 
economic  affairs.  Bible  stars  are  symbols  of 
abundance.  Sand  on  the  seashore  and  stars  in 
the  sky  spell  plenty.  The  ministry  is  an  asset 
to  the  earth.  Armies,  institutions,  churches, 
hospitals,  home,  market,  school,  empire,  the 
cradle,  or  the  grave,  cannot  write  their  history 
saying  little  of  the  ministry. 


i 


54 


SENT  FORTH 


Probably  holding  the  stars  in  his  right  hand 
has  in  it  the  idea  of  shielding  and  protection. 
God  is  between  his  servants  and  trouble. 
“Touch  not  mine  anointed,  and  do  my  prophets 
no  harm.”  But  the  larger  concept  is  of  strength 
and  command.  Jesus  standing  at  the  right  hand 
of  God  in  Stephen’s  vision  is  a  symbol  of  the 
throne,  authority,  the  dynamic.  Stephen  falls 
and  dies.  Stephen’s  Lord  is  King  of  kings.  A 
few  persecutors  are  negligible.  So  holding  the 
stars  in  the  right  hand  means  more  than  simply 
holding.  In  our  Protestant  reaction  from 
apostolic  succession  we  may  easily  swing  too 
far.  God  would  have  us  know  that  to  the  end 
of  time  he  has  large  business  for  his  ministers. 
His  gospel  is  not  geared  to  get  on  without 
preaching.  It  was  a  preaching  of  the  cross  from 
the  beginning,  but  it  was  preaching.  It  was  not 
to  be  a  failure  and  need  the  return  of  Jesus  to 
cover  its  retreat.  “Faith  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God.”  “How 
beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of 
him  that  bringeth  good  tidings.  .  .  of  good.” 
Organization  is  never  to  take  the  place  of 
preaching.  The  candlestick  is  a  farce  without 
the  candle.  Sacraments  do  not  supplant 
preaching.  The  altar  is  below  the  pulpit. 
Fellowship  does  not  take  room  from  preaching. 
The  church  is  more  than  a  meeting  house. 


STAR  PREACHERS 


55 


Social  service,  philanthropy,  culture,  all  are 
good  and  wise,  but  the  staple  of  the  gospel  is 
preaching.  “He. .  .  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in 
his  hand.” 

The  dignity  of  the  ministry  suggests  practical 
lessons  without  number.  What  a  pitiful  spec¬ 
tacle  is  a  ministerial  trifler!  It  is  suggested  that 
money  returns  are  keeping  men  out  of  the 
ministry.  Men  so  kept  out  are  v^ell  kept  out. 
No  man  with  social,  literary,  financial,  or 
political  ambitions  beyond  an  ordinary  com¬ 
mon  sense,  should  dream  of  preaching.  The 
preaching  is  improved  when  ecclesiastical  am¬ 
bition  is  added  to  the  list.  David  is  not  alw  ays 
happy  in  the  back  pasture.  No  man  readily 
discouraged  should  preach.  The  juniper  tree 
is  poor  timber  for  a  pulpit.  What  a  sense  of  the 
dignity  of  the  ministry  it  wTas  that  led  to 
monasticism!  The  comfort  of  home,  the  joy  of 
life,  the  honor  of  parentage,  the  passing  on  of 
the  family  name,  the  wTealth  of  friendship  wrere 
supposed  a  small  price  for  the  dignity  of  the 
ministry.  Of  what  great  worth  in  a  minister  is  a 
worthy  daily  manner  and  conduct!  The 
custom  of  those  churches  which  insist  on  their 
ministers  wearing  a  garb  is  not  all  folly.  A 
conventional  garment  is  a  conservator  of 
dignity.  Doubtless  the  regnancy  of  the  holy 
man,  the  priest,  the  prophet,  the  monk 


56 


SENT  FORTH 


has  been  much  in  his  robe  in  all  ages  and 
lands. 

It  is  doubtful  if  a  reputation  as  a  raconteur 
is  any  large  help  to  a  minister.  Men  laugh  but 
do  not  linger.  The  story-telling  gate  to  heaven 
is  on  a  side  street.  The  lecture  habit  among 
preachers  has  grown  with  the  decline  of  the 
evangel.  It  is  the  actor  who  graces  the  stage. 
The  inviting  grin  waiting  for  applause  is  better 
veiled.  Here  is  the  evil  of  slang  in  the  pulpit. 
It  is  not  wicked  but  cheap.  The  oft-quoted 
reaction  from  the  legendary  long  face  of  the 
fathers  is  moonshine  in  the  main.  The  soldier 
of  the  Argonne  did  not  come  home  with  a 
smirk.  He  had  looked  Death  in  the  eyes.  With 
vision  of  two  worlds  he  had  grown  great.  Here 
is  the  value  of  mastery  in  scholarship.  No  man 
can  feed  on  the  mighty  thinking  of  the  ages  and 
be  a  clown.  Human  life  is  neither  circus  nor 
sawdust.  The  minister  travels  up  rather  than 
around.  Elis  commission  is  from  Him  who  holds 
the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand. 

Its  affiliation  with  the  churches  is  of  the 
dignity  of  the  ministry.  The  seven  golden 
candlesticks  were  a  sky  for  the  seven  stars  to 
shine  in.  Organization  is  preaching.  The 
minister  is  in  company  with  the  constructive. 
He  is  of  the  family  of  law  and  order.  The  great 
institutions  of  life  are  preachers.  .The  in- 


STAR  PREACHERS 


57 


stitution  of  sex,  the  institution  of  races,  the 
institution  of  tribes  and  nations,  the  insti¬ 
tution  of  sacrifices,  the  institution  of  the  sacra¬ 
ments,  all  are  sermons  in  form  and  shape.  The 
very  universe  is  a  ministry.  It  is  a  platform,  a 
house  for  men,  an  opportunity  for  service,  that 
it  may  preach.  “The  heavens  declare  the  glory 
of  God.  Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech.” 

Likewise  the  Bible  is  preeminently  preaching. 
Its  history,  ritual,  legislation,  poetry,  prophecy, 
doctrine,  are  of  the  pulpit.  The  historian  is 
through  with  one  when  he  has  finished  his 
record.  The  legislator  adjourns  when  his  law 
is  on  the  statute  books.  The  teacher’s  lesson 
is  his  epitaph.  The  singer  is  done  with  his  song. 
The  empire  of  other  men  is  the  mind.  The 
empire  of  the  minister  annexes  the  conscience. 
Every  other  man  rests  with  culture.  The 
minister  is  content  only  with  character.  Every 
other  man  deals  with  what  men  think  and  feel 
and  do.  The  preacher  deals  further  with  what 
they  are.  The  literature,  science,  art  of  the 
Bible  are  small  affairs  to  its  preaching.  The 
ministry  is  in  company  with  the  greatest  book 
on  earth,  and  is  at  ease. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


In  some  markets  ministers  go  cheap. 

The  Bartholdi  Statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York 
harbor  has  a  torch  in  her  hand.  Liberty  is  not  fool¬ 
proof.  She  must  swing  her  lantern. 

Angels  do  not  preach.  God  has  better  ministers. 
Angels  might  bungle  at  it. 

No  one  man  can  be  a  model  minister.  It  takes  a 
composite  of  seven  of  the  best  to  be  that  thing. 
“He  . .  .  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand.” 

To  the  Bible  the  stars  are  an  appendix  to  the  earth. 

They  have  grown  on  us.  The  ministry  grows  on 
one. 

It  is  suggested  that  money  returns  are  keeping  men 
out  of  the  ministry.  Men  so  kept  out  are  well  kept 
out. 

The  juniper  tree  is  poor  timber  for  a  pulpit. 

The  regnancy  of  the  holy  man  is  often  in  his  robe. 
A  conventional  garment  is  a  conservator  of  dignity. 
A  preacher  may  die  of  his  dressing. 

The  soldier  of  the  Argonne  did  not  come  home 
with  a  smirk.  He  had  looked  two  worlds  in  the  eyes. 
The  prophet  has  little  business  with  the  inviting  grin. 


CHAPTER  V 


LITTLE  FOXES 

A  minister  is  especially  liable  to  become 
irreverent.  His  worship  is  also  of  his  day’s  work. 
The  church,  the  Bible,  the  prayers,  the  sermon, 
the  song,  even  the  sacraments,  are  the  tools  of 
his  trade.  As  men  take  sun,  and  air,  and  food, 
and  drink,  and  garments,  and  sleep,  the  vital 
things,  as  matters  of  course,  so  human  nature 
nods  in  its  Holy  of  holies.  The  danger  is  that 
the  commonplace  to  the  minister  may  turn 
commonplace  to  his  congregation.  To  be 
perfunctory  or  phonographic  is  a  ready  tempta¬ 
tion.  And  every  moment  of  it  is  irreverence. 
The  established  reputation  of  ministers  as 
story-tellers  is  certainly  doubtful,  as  now  and 
then  desirable.  A  prophet  lost  in  a  good  fellow 
is  questionable  gain.  Because  the  preacher  can 
talk  he  turns  lecturer.  It  does  not  lift  the 
platform  to  the  level  of  the  pulpit.  One  who 
listens  to  be  entertained  is  not  the  man  who 
tarries  to  pray.  The  flippant  wit  so  often  heard 
as  to  hell  and  heaven  is  the  ruin  of  souls  un¬ 
numbered.  The  great  and  good  are  found  as  sin¬ 
ners  not  rarely  just  here.  A  careless  play  with 

59 


60 


SENT  FORTH 


Scripture  is  as  common  and  hurtful.  Attention 
drawn  to  the  sermon  or  to  the  machinery  of 
worship,  does  not  better  the  worship  or  the 
sermon.  If  one  has  not  the  reverence  in  his 
soul,  it  is  useless  as  a  garment.  There  should 
be  nothing  negligible  in  a  minister’s  readiness 
for  his  work.  The  people  have  rights  to  the 
best.  And  God  has  a  care  for  his  servants. 

It  is  of  his  day’s  work  that  the  minister  be  an 
optimist.  He  has  in  charge  a  gospel,  good 
news,  glad  tidings.  To  him  all  lanes  have  a 
turn.  He  knows  no  blind  alleys.  All  things 
work  together  for  good  with  him.  And  this 
optimism  is  expected.  Other  men  being  called 
may  not  answer.  He  must  hear  and  come. 
Then,  too,  he  walks  in  an  atmosphere  of  the 
supernatural.  He  breathes  high  air.  Seas  have 
opened  to  a  path,  lions  have  lost  their  teeth, 
angels  have  ministered,  to  the  like  of  him.  How 
perfectly  natural  that  he  should  often  uncon¬ 
sciously  become  an  exaggerator ! — one  variety  of 
liar.  His  stories  are  told  till  he  believes  them 
himself.  Said  one  of  the  boys  a  while  since, 
“Professor,  are  you  lecturing,  or  just  talking?” 

Whatever  we  do  tends  to  be  of  a  piece.  What 
a  pity  when  overstatement,  undue  enthusiasm, 
“drawing  the  long  bow,”  has  brought  its  dis¬ 
count!  Just  here  is  an  excellent  reason  more 
for  a  ministerial  mastery  of  the  best  literature. 


LITTLE  FOXES 


61 


It  will  keep  the  good  man  from  economy  and 
extravagance  with  the  truth.  In  revival  serv¬ 
ices,  particularly,  a  course  of  reading  in 
rationalistic  channels  is  immensely  helpful.  A 
faith  that  will  not  stand  a  cool  brain  would 
better  be  lost.  To  understate,  to  earn  a  re¬ 
putation  for  carefulness,  is  wiser  than  to  amaze 
and  astound. 

After  some  fashion  all  men  are  warped.  A 
particular  window  into  life,  an  especial  line  of 
interest,  or  work,  narrows  us  into  something 
less  than  our  best.  The  age  of  specializing 
catches  us  in  its  current.  But,  after  all,  are  not 
ministers  ministers  to  men?  Children,  women, 
young  people,  sick  people  and  well,  democrat 
and  aristocrat,  scholarly  and  otherwise,  poor  and 
rich,  get  strangely  set  in  the  same  parish.  Why 
should  any  master  of  a  manse  be  a  pastor  and  no 
preacher,  or  a  preacher  and  no  pastor?  Why 
should  one  be  an  evangelist,  another  a  teacher, 
another  a  Sunday-school  man,  another  a  civic 
force,  another  great  on  finance?  It  is,  of  course, 
very  human,  but  why  raise  it  into  a  principle? 
Whether  we  really  are  made  of  the  congenial  is 
much  of  a  question.  The  oak  is  the  child  of  the 
storm.  Religion  as  an  exotic  may  have  its 
place. 

There  is  a  thing  we  may  not  be  sure  is  a  little 
fox.  Do  we  not  underrate  the  dynamic  in  our 


62 


SENT  FORTH 


religion?  The  mother  of  Jesus  advised  that 
whatsoever  he  said,  it  would  be  well  to  do.  Till 
power  came  upon  them  the  most  earnest 
disciples  waited.  A  great  apostle  was  not 
content  with  believers  except  as  they  became 
receivers.  All  power  is  given  that  we  may  go, 
therefore.  Thinking  it  over,  are  ministers  as 
masterful  in  the  dynamic  gospel  as  with  the 
cultural,  ethical,  economic,  civic,  philanthropic 
gospel?  The  herald  of  the  earlier  day  expected 
God  in  his  toil.  His  mission  was  to  be  not  as 
other  men  are.  His  excuse  for  being  was  a 
command  of  the  situation.  Scriptural  holiness 
was  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  rather 
than  something  of  a  sort.  To  him  prayer  was 
to  be  answered.  Into  the  secret  of  this  presence 
it  is  the  minister  who  must  lead. 

An  unmistakable  little  fox  is  the  relatively 
small  attention  given  to  music  by  the  minister. 
There  are  many  of  him  actually  ashamed  that 
he  cannot  sing.  Many  more  can  use  no  instru¬ 
ment  of  any  kind.  The  general  spread  of  train¬ 
ing  in  music,  the  hearty  love  of  it  in  widen¬ 
ing  circles,  the  glorious  history  of  Christian 
hymnody,  the  frittering  folly  of  so  much  secular 
music,  the  burdening  sorrows  of  the  earth  all  call 
for  ministers  with  the  voice  of  song. 

What  about  caste  in  the  Christian  ministry? 
The  chatter  about  grade,  fine  people,  better 


LITTLE  FOXES 


63 


classes,  city  and  country  churches,  is  con¬ 
siderably  nothing  less.  And  it  helps  no  one.  An 
episcopal  polity  leads  to  ranking  and  place  as 
surely  as  efficiency,  and  as  straight.  Let  no  one 
fall  when  tempted.  To  be  given  charges  that 
are  tasks  is  honor.  The  royal  purple  is  the 
aristocracy  of  hard  knocks.  How  ministers  deal 
with  each  other  is  much  of  a  proposition.  To 
follow  a  popular  pastor  is  only  a  degree  harder 
than  to  succeed  the  brother  criticized  and  un¬ 
appreciated.  The  thing  to  remember  is  that 
whatever  was  left  is  foundation  to  him  that 
cometli  after.  The  skill  with  which  one  can 
adjust  and  adapt  is  the  measure  of  his  success. 
Our  predecessor  had  his  faults;  and  when  we 
move  on,  it  will  be  found  that  we  had  ours.  To 
be  reminded  earlier  has  happened.  “Why 
should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud?” 

It  may  not  appeal  overlargely,  but  the  ac¬ 
commodated  use  of  the  Holy  Scripture  is  always 
a  questionable  matter.  If  the  Bible  is  virtually 
a  word  of  God,  it  is  a  compelling  situation.  To 
make  a  plaything  of  it  is  worse  than  doubtful 
taste.  It  should  be  used  in  no  fashion  but  as 
the  heraldry  of  the  highest.  A  mistake  is  not 
germane.  Mistakes  are  inevitable.  But  to  use 
deliberately  any  portion  of  the  great  good  book 
except  in  its  original  intent  has  no  final  end  but 
evil.  All  laughable  turns  of  the  Bible,  except 


64 


SENT  FORTH 


as  humor  is  of  the  record,  should  be  absolutely 
unknown.  There  is  something  unethical  in 
the  frequent  tirade  against  scholarly  study 
of  the  Bible.  All  we  should  ask  of  any  man  is 
scrupulously  honest  intention.  With  open  sin¬ 
cerity  no  man  can  damage  the  book  of  God. 
The  hypocrite  cannot  harm  it.  The  world 
needs  rather  more  than  less  of  what  men  call 
Bibliolatry. 

A  very  common  evil  among  ministers  is  pro¬ 
fessionalism.  With  those  of  liberal  notion  of 
ordination,  costume,  etc.,  it  is  particularly  un¬ 
necessary.  It  is  worth  while  any  time  to  be 
taken  for  a  man  rather  than  a  minister.  The 
man  will  take  all  care  for  the  minister.  The 
traditional  notions  of  ministerial  ethics  are  com¬ 
monly  a  burden  grievous  to  be  borne.  The 
red-blooded  contact  of  brother  men,  common 
toilers  in  a  common  field,  can  always  be  attained 
if  there  is  a  will  thereto.  True  courtesy,  to  its 
owner,  always  comes  easy. 

Perhaps  the  most  dangerous  perplexity  min¬ 
isters  encounter  is  in  their  dealings  with  woman¬ 
kind.  The  overmastering  strength  of  passion 
or  plain  infatuation,  in  either  men  or  women,  is 
suspected  by  few.  The  devil  garments  himself 
in  light  not  rarely.  There  is  a  careless  ideal  in 
thousands  of  very  decent  people.  The  standard 
as  seen  in  novels,  plays,  magazines,  papers,  is 


LITTLE  FOXES 


65 


often  misleading  and  debasing.  The  average 
physician  is  a  poor  adviser.  The  ideals  even  of 
good  women  are  strangely  complex,  and  they 
often  deceive  themselves.  The  only  solution 
is  a  perfectly  sane,  white  attitude  in  every 
situation.  The  idea  of  a  husky  man  putting 
himself  in  an  alarmed  suspicious  relation  toward 
half  the  human  race,  having  his  wife  invariably 
call  with  him,  insisting  on  a  study  in  the  par¬ 
sonage,  acting  constrained  or  conventional 
toward  his  faithful  women  parishioners  is  to  be 
one  sort  of  plain  fool.  A  man  who  cannot,  with 
open  eyes,  informed  mind,  and  white  soul, 
calmly  meet  all  comers  anywhere  would  better 
leave  the  ministry.  It  is  the  first  step,  the 
picnicking  with  fascination,  that  is  dangerous. 
To  be  forewarned  is  much  the  battle.  The 
farther  one  gets  beyond  the  halfway  house,  the 
greater  the  wisdom  he  will  see  in  these  words. 

These  reflections  lead  naturally  to  the  domes¬ 
tic  situation  with  the  preacher.  The  average 
minister  sadly  needs  a  home.  What  he  has 
is  usually  an  annex  to  the  church.  His  family 
and  he  are  in  such  a  unique  relation  to  the 
parish  that  the  pathetic  human  side  of  it  rarely 
appears.  One  might  almost  pity  those  whom 
Bishop  Edwin  Hughes  so  fitly  styles  “the 
children  of  the  manse.”  They  do  turn  out 
surprisingly  well,  but  it  is  of  the  Lord’s  mercies 


G6 


SENT  FORTH 


that  they  are  not  consumed.  The  point  is  that 
if  a  minister  is  to  be  a  minister  to  other  people’s 
homes,  he  should  have  one  of  his  own.  The 
elemental  is  his  stock  in  trade,  and  the  brand 
under  his  own  roof  is  meaning  or  decay. 

It  is  evident  a  line  of  investigation  of  this  sort 
might  ramble  on  a  quarter  section  of  forever. 
There  is  no  advice  for  all  situations.  Let  the 
minister  be  a  big-brotherly  white  soul  and  little 
foxes  or  large  will  not  spoil  the  vines.  They 
will  blossom  and  bear  fruit. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


A  minister  is  especially  liable  to  become  irreverent. 
Worship  is  so  largely  of  his  day’s  work. 

A  prophet  lost  in  a  good  fellow  is  doubtful  gain. 

Attention  drawn  to  the  machinery  of  worship  or 
of  the  sermon  does  not  better  either  worship  or 
sermon. 

It  is  perfectly  natural  that  a  minister  should  now 
and  then  turn  out  exaggerator,  one  variety  of  liar. 
Both  economy  and  extravagance  with  the  truth  are 
so  handy. 

After  some  fashion,  all  men  are  warped.  Special¬ 
izing  is  a  matter  of  no  age. 

A  faith  that  will  not  stand  a  cool  brain  would 
better  be  lost. 

Whether  men  are  made  of  the  congenial  is  much 
of  a  question. 

Religion  as  an  exotic  may  have  its  place.  The 
oak  is  child  of  the  storm. 

An  episcopal  polity  leads  to  ranking  and  place  as 
surely  as  efficiency,  and  as  straight. 

To  be  given  churches  that  are  tasks  is  honor.  The 
royal  purple  is  an  aristocracy  of  hard  knocks. 

All  laughable  turns  of  the  Bible,  except  as  humor  is 
of  the  record,  should  be  absolutely  unknown. 

The  average  minister  sadly  needs  a  home.  What 
he  has  is  usually  an  annex  to  the  church. 


67 


CHAPTER  VI 


JESUS  THE  PREACHER 

A  large  part  of  the  preacher’s  business  is  to 
teach.  The  world  is  to  know  more  because  he 
is  around.  He  is  a  builder  of  worlds.  He 
widens  horizons.  He  pushes  up  the  blue.  He 
gathers  treasures  in  the  deep.  As  the  world 
grows  better  it  grows  greater.  The  world 
suffers  from  its  littleness  as  largely  as  from  its 
wickedness.  The  preacher  is  an  enemy  of  the 
small  as  of  the  bad.  As  in  another  time  he  will 
find  old  folks  sending  children  to  the  rear;  saints 
will  be  calling  down  fire;  Martha  will  be  thinking 
of  her  manners  rather  than  piety;  Peter  with 
drawn  sword,  and  Saul  of  Tarsus  at  the  stoning 
of  Stephen,  will  appear  in  the  flesh.  He  will  see 
good  men  at  the  worship  of  politics,  making 
Jesus  a  King,  and  sending  their  gods  to  the 
cross,  not  knowing  what  they  do.  He  will  hear 
holy  men  mourning  that  the  Son  of  God  does 
not  walk  on  earth  to-day,  as  sorrow  filled  the 
heart  of  other  holy  men  when  he  went  away. 
In  a  word,  mistakes  will  be  his  business  as  surely 
as  will  meanness.  The  minister  must  minister 

68 


JESUS  THE  PREACHER 


69 


evermore  in  teaching,  as  Jesus  ministered  in 
teaching  long  ago. 

But  teaching  is  not  the  whole  story.  Jesus 
said  he  came  also  to  preach.  “I  must  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities  also:  for 
therefore  am  I  sent.”  What  is  preaching  as 
distinguished  from  teaching?  Briefly,  it  is 
teaching  applied  to  moral  results.  It  is  teaching 
in  bloom,  at  harvest,  come  to  harbor.  The  end 
of  teaching  simply  is  the  lesson.  Preaching 
begins  with  the  lesson.  It  ends  only  with  the 
learning.  When  Jesus  called  attention  to  the 
Commandments  he  was  teaching  the  rich  young 
man,  as  also  in  telling  him  to  sell  what  he  had. 
As  the  young  man  went  away  sorrowful  he  left 
the  preacher.  Jesus  loving  the  young  ruler, 
patiently  putting  duty  into  his  mental  perspec¬ 
tive,  disappointed  that  seeing  his  way  he  walked 
in  another,  was  Jesus  the  preacher. 

When  Jesus  seeing  multitudes  of  the  simple- 
hearted  following  him  in  utter  sincerity,  re¬ 
joiced  in  spirit,  it  was  Jesus  the  preacher. 
Nicodemus  in  coming  to  Jesus  was  in  search  of 
a  teacher.  His  surprise  lay  in  finding  a  preacher. 
Nicodemus  must  learn,  but  learn  to  be  born 
again.  The  drive  to  make  a  man  something  as 
well  as  to  tell  him  things  is  a  mark  of  the 
preacher. 

The  frequent  expression,  “He  that  hath  ears 


70 


SENT  FORTH 


to  hear,  let  him  hear,”  is  the  preacher  in  theory. 
Being  in  earshot,  they  will  hear.  But  what  will 
the  hearing  come  to?  “Thou  hast  taught  in  our 
streets,”  said  the  multitudes  at  the  judgment. 
“Depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity,”  said 
the  Judge.  The  teacher  was  not  allowed  to 
preach. 

Illustration  can  hardly  he  at  too  great  length, 
for  the  reason  that  ministers  are  in  constant 
terrible  temptation  to  sink  the  preacher  in  the 
teacher.  There  was  never  so  scientific  an  age. 
To  know  is  an  obsession.  The  scholar  is  in 
honor.  Many  men  leave  the  preaching  business 
to  teach,  to  write,  to  lecture,  to  reform,  to 
better  the  economic  situation.  In  every  sermon, 
the  literary,  the  didactic,  the  aesthetic,  the 
philanthropic  call  so  sweetly,  so  siren-like,  that, 
ere  the  good  man  is  aware,  the  lure  and  the 
rocks  have  won.  Not  that  it  is  wrong  to  lecture. 
But  how  much  lecturing  would  be  done  did  the 
audience  suspect  an  altar  call  went  with  the 
ticket?  The  lecturer  commonly  sells  out  the 
preacher  to  lecture.  There  is  some  writing  that 
is  preaching.  But  how  much  preacher  writing 
goes  further  than  the  fascination  of  composition, 
the  search  for  a  wider  world,  the  hunger  for 
immortality?  Jesus  of  Nazareth  wrote  only  in 
the  dust. 

It  is  a  matter  of  widest  comment  that  preach- 


JESUS  THE  PREACHER 


71 


ers  cannot  exhort  as  in  the  older  days.  It 
really  means  they  cannot  preach  as  in  the  older 
day.  Exhortation  is  the  soul  of  preaching. 
Jesus  knew  all  tears  were  soon  to  vanish  with 
the  rising  of  Lazarus.  But  he  stood  at  the  grave 
and  wept.  The  preacher  in  him  would  not 
quiet.  Looking  at  Jerusalem  in  her  beauty  and 
glory,  he  wept  again.  The  preacher  was  master. 
He  would  have  gathered  her  children  as  a  hen 
her  brood,  and  she  would  not.  AYhen  Jesus  saw 
the  multitudes  he  had  compassion.  The  Jews 
were  a  healthy,  wealthy,  wise,  and  happy  people. 
To  be  pitied  was  not  of  their  wishes.  But  Jesus 
pitied  them.  They  were  as  sheep  having  no 
shepherd,  and  the  heart  of  the  preacher  broke. 

Jesus  went  up  into  the  wilderness  to  be 
tempted  of  the  devil.  Later  he  was  taken  up 
into  the  holy  city.  Still  later  he  was  led  to  an 
exceeding  high  mountain.  Temptations  have 
a  queer  wearying  to  travel  up.  The  preacher 
often  goes  up  into  the  pulpit  to  be  tempted  of 
the  devil.  How  many  sermons  like  the  Dead 
Sea  end  in  themselves?  That  excellent  notion 
of  the  bread  upon  the  waters  returning  after 
many  days  has  been  the  ruin  of  thousands.  It 
is  so  thrilling,  this  talking  sense  before  a  con¬ 
gregation,  startling  them  to  listen,  to  smile,  to 
approve,  to  come  again,  and  to  come  again.  It 
may  not  be  preaching. 


72 


SENT  FORTH 


Sinking  the  preacher  in  any  other  side  of  his 
calling  is  calamity.  The  opposite,  of  course,  no 
one  will  commend.  The  preacher  who  cannot 
teach,  who  has  no  new  thing  to  tell  his  auditors, 
who  tries  to  make  up  in  good  intentions  for 
study,  in  earnestness  for  the  world  of  books,  in 
tears  for  brain  sweat,  in  gy mna sties  for  gray 
matter,  is  a  discount  on  the  breed.  But  in  this 
thinking,  reading  age  his  empty  pews  will 
care  for  him.  The  danger  comes  to  the  man 
who  can  interest,  entertain,  and  help  a  con¬ 
gregation  and  not  preach  at  all.  That  he  can 
do  it  is  exactly  why  he  is  so  apt  to  do  it.  And 
preachers  of  any  sort  growing  scarce! 

Now  and  then  there  will  be  occasion  to 
distinguish  between  preaching  and  reforming. 
The  time  came  to  Jesus  when  the  people  would 
make  him  king.  A  king  was  a  small  affair  to  a 
preacher.  Not  every  preacher  can  get  well  out 
of  sight  when  the  hunt  for  kings  is  on.  The 
latest  question  the  disciples  asked  their  Lord  was 
if  the  kingdom  might  early  be  restored  to 
Israel.  And  witnessing  to  the  ends  of  the  earth 
was  the  thing  worth  while.  To  give  up  trans¬ 
forming  for  reforming  is  a  bad  bargain.  “Master, 
speak  to  my  brother,  that  he  divide  the  in¬ 
heritance  with  me.”  “Who  made  me  a  judge 
or  a  divider  over  you?”  The  conservation  of 
property  is  useful,  but  no  large  affair.  The 


JESUS  THE  PREACHER 


73 


time  came  for  Jesus  to  pay  his  taxes.  He  paid 
them.  He  had  his  opinion  of  some  things,  but 
lest  he  should  give  offense,  he  saw  that  all 
obligations  to  existing  government  were  met. 
The  familiar  words,  “Render  to  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar’s,”  will  recur  often. 
Jesus  lived  and  spoke  at  a  time  wdien  every 
other  man  on  earth  was  a  slave.  Yet  his  gospel 
and  human  bondage  lived  side  by  side  for 
eighteen  hundred  years.  Jesus  lived  in  a  time 
when  the  man  who  could  was  king.  And  kings 
are  still  alive  to-day.  Jesus  lived  in  a  time  of 
grave  and  grievous  legalized  social  injustice. 
Yet  he  was  never  revolutionary.  The  lesson  is 
that  he  felt  the  larger  issue  was  the  preaching. 

Usually  preachers  are  turned  aside  from  their 
real  work  as  developing  special  talents  in  special 
lines.  The  better  way  would  be  to  raise  up 
laymen  who  are  not  called  to  preach.  The 
exceeding  great  army  of  preachers  who  become 
financial  agents,  Anti-Saloon  League  managers, 
college  presidents,  secretaries,  and  what  not,  is 
a  thing  to  consider.  The  executive  work  forced 
upon  bishops  and  district  superintendents  is 
also  a  matter  for  concern.  The  time  was  when 
preaching  was  their  power.  Managers  may  be 
bought  in  the  market. 

Very  strangely  the  preacher  and  the  phil¬ 
anthropist  are  to  be  distinguished  now  and 


74 


SENT  FORTH 


then.  From  a  variety  of  sources  comes  the 
insistence  that  the  care  of  the  body,  the  gospel 
of  physical  comfort,  is  a  vital  element  in  world 
evangelism.  The  institutional  church,  the  cults 
of  healing,  the  relief  of  poverty  in  private  charity, 
are  illustrations.  No  one  wTill  dispute  their 
value.  The  cup  of  cold  water  is  a  thing  of  high 
honor.  Nevertheless,  to  sell  out  preaching  for 
it  is  to  starve  the  earth.  That  in  some  churches 
deacons  are  laymen  did  not  happen.  Man  does 
not  live  by  bread  alone  but  by  every  word  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  It  is  quite 
often  worth  while  to  go  hungry  and  be  good.  It 
is  not  accident  that  comfort  of  body  was  so 
early  cast  in  the  light  of  a  temptation.  It  is 
hardly  believable  men  really  followed  Jesus  for 
the  loaves  and  fishes.  To  sell  out  a  soul  for  an 
appetite  seems  almost  a  witticism.  Jesus  said 
it  was  sober  fact.  The  miracles  were  preaching. 
The  Jews  took  them  for  an  end  in  themselves. 
The  manna  in  the  wilderness  was  not  a  model 
but  a  sermon.  It  was  preaching:  a  table  that 
was  a  pulpit,  not  a  market. 

Here  lies  a  paralytic.  He  has  come  down 
through  the  roof.  He  thinks,  and  his  friends 
think,  that  paralysis  is  a  trouble  of  the  first 
order.  Jesus  says  sin  is  the  trouble  of 
the  first  order.  His  first  word  is,  “Man, 
thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee.”  Paralysis  can 


JESUS  THE  PREACHER 


75 


wait.  The  body  is  to  be  dust.  The  soul 
lives  forever. 

Up  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  good  men 
thought  that  tabernacles  might  be  built  for  a 
stay.  But  there  was  no  congregation  for 
preaching.  Moses  and  Elias  and  Peter  and 
James  and  John  were  already  in  the  good  way. 
The  chance  for  preaching  was  down  in  the 
valley,  and  down  in  the  valley  they  went. 

The  eagerness  of  Jesus  for  soul  ministry  is 
a  lesson  to  be  studied,  pondered  and  remem¬ 
bered  forever.  “Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be 
about  my  Father’s  business ?”  The  safety  of 
a  twelve-year-old  boy  was  a  minor  matter.  “I 
must  preach  the  kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities 
also.”  He  was  restless  in  quiet.  “If  ye  had 
known  what  this  meaneth,  T  will  have  mercy, 
and  not  sacrifice/  ye  would  not  have  con¬ 
demned  the  guiltless.”  Even  keeping  the  Sab¬ 
bath  may  wait  if  men  are  to  be  converted. 
“An  evil  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh 
after  a  sign.”  The  sign  shall  be  preaching 
Jesus  and  the  Resurrection.  “The  men  of 
Nineveh  shall  rise  in  judgment  with  this 
generation,  and  condemn  it.”  “They  repented 
at  the  preaching  of  Jonas,  and  a  greater  than 
Jonas  is  here.” 

The  strong  impression  of  the  whole  Jesus 
example  is  that  preaching  is  of  mandatory  and 


76 


SENT  FORTH 


primary  value.  Greater  than  teaching,  greater 
than  philanthropy,  greater  than  reforming, 
greater  than  all  ritual,  a  man  comes  down  in 
shading  it  for  anything  on  earth.  The  com¬ 
manding  need  of  the  world  is  a  resurrection  of 
the  pulpit.  Jesus  the  Preacher  is  the  vision 
splendid. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


The  world  suffers  from  its  littleness  more  sorely 
than  from  its  meanness. 

The  ministerial  lecturer  sells  out  the  preacher  to 
lecture.  If  he  is  a  go.  Usually. 

Temptations  have  a  queer  wearying  for  high 
places.  One  casts  himself  down  to  fall.  “And  I 
saw  there  was  a  way  to  Hell  from  the  very  gates  of 
Heaven.” 

Preachers  are  called  of  God.  Managers  may  be 
bought  in  the  market. 

The  manna  in  the  wilderness  was  not  a  model  but 
a  sermon.  The  cup  of  cold  water  is  a  thing  of 
high  honor.  Nevertheless,  to  sell  out  preaching  for 
a  diaconate  is  to  starve  the  earth.  In  many  churches 
the  deacons  are  laymen. 

The  commanding  need  of  the  world  is  a  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  pulpit. 

To  give  up  transforming  for  reforming  is  a  bad 
bargain. 


77 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 

To  a  world  that  knows  what  it  is  to  be 
hungry,  Jesus  is  said  to  be  bread.  To  a  world 
that  dies  without  water,  the  call  is  to  come  to 
him  and  drink.  To  a  world  in  the  dark,  he  is 
the  Light.  To  a  world  familiar  wfith  raw 
existence  and  with  death,  he  is  Life.  To  a 
world  always  perplexed  about  something,  he  is 
the  Way.  So  to  a  world  that  cannot  care  for 
itself,  he  is  the  Shepherd,  the  Good  Shepherd. 
This  is  the  exact  definition  of  a  pastor.  The 
pastor  is  literally  a  keeper  of  sheep.  When 
Jesus  said  he  was  the  Good  Shepherd,  he  gave 
us  the  highest  model.  One  cannot  do  better, 
would  he  be  a  good  pastor,  than  to  study  the 
pastorate  of  the  Christ.  He  may  not  get 
details.  Galilee  and  Judea  after  twenty  cen¬ 
turies  show  some  variety.  But  he  will  get 
principles,  and  principles  that  will  care  for  all 
details. 

He  will  discover,  primarily,  that  the  good 
shepherd,  the  good  pastor,  is  ethically  good.  He 
cannot  be  thief  or  robber.  He  can  neither  steal, 
kill,  nor  destroy.  It  is  hardly  wise  to  take  it  for 

78 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


79 


granted  that  the  pastor  is  a  good  man.  Jesus 
Christ  made  mention  that  he  always  did  the 
things  pleasing  to  God;  that  no  one  might 
convince  him  of  sin.  Only  a  faultless  Christ 
could  be  a  Christ.  Paul  said  he  kept  his  body 
under  lest  having  preached  to  others,  he  himself 
might  become  a  castaway.  He  was  out  in  the 
congregation.  It  is  not  half  bad  that  a  preacher 
have  standing  as  a  business  man,  a  literary 
proposition,  a  social  good  fellow,  a  success  in 
his  family,  a  force  in  his  community;  but  his 
mightiest  asset  is  a  rating  as  a  holy  man.  The 
last  thing  that  is  good,  is  to  identify  himself 
with  holiness  as  a  specialty,  for  holiness  touches 
the  whole  of  things.  But  so  to  live  that  men 
see  a  mastery  of  self,  and  of  the  life  from  God, 
is  of  vital  matters.  Possibly  here  is  the  widest 
difference  between  our  earlier  and  later  models. 
We  do  not  impress  the  world,  above  all  else,  as 
men  of  God.  Men  of  the  world,  men  of  the 
Book,  men  of  speech,  men  of  affairs,  we  are, 
but  not  so  obviously  men  of  God.  Like  Martha, 
careful  and  troubled  about  many  things,  the 
one  thing  needful  to  be  careful  and  troubled 
about  is  set  aside.  The  modern  minister  works 
no  harder,  nor  for  longer  hours,  than  his  brother 
of  the  older  times.  He  does  work  at  more 
things.  He  has  more  fingers  on  his  hands.  It  is 
his  task  to  see  that  they  do  not  strangle  his 


80 


SENT  FORTH 


soul.  The  German  shiver  at  the  mystic  is  likely 
one  germ  of  their  desolated  will  to  war.  A 
little  more  of  the  mystic  in  modern  life  would 
help  affairs.  The  good  pastor  will  be  a  good 
man. 

The  Good  Shepherd  knew  each  of  his  sheep 
by  name.  The  pastor  cares  for  individuals.  He 
is  inevitably  a  public  man.  He  is  an  affair  of 
the  crowd.  He  is  an  official;  the  soul  of  an 
organization.  He  is  a  community  force.  He  is 
an  example;  a  mirror  for  the  many.  As  a 
teacher,  he  has  a  school.  As  a  pastor  he  follows 
a  flock.  It  may  be  his  temptation.  All  his  time, 
all  his  attention,  all  of  a  great  reputation,  all 
his  strength,  may  go  to  a  performance.  A  man 
so  tried,  on  being  asked  to  get  close  to  some 
concrete  difficulties,  very  frankly  demurred, 
saying,  “I  cannot  come  down  to  individuals.” 
“You  seem  to  have  gotten  further  along  than 
the  Almighty,”  was  the  pertinent  comment. 
He  had  fallen  in  love  with  the  ninety  and  nine. 

That  Jesus  cared  deeply  to  come  in  contact 
with  his  world  in  any  form,  we  have  seen.  He 
did  not  retreat  wffien  the  world  was  just  one 
man  or  one  woman.  He  labored  with  Nico- 
demus.  He  converted  the  Samaritan  woman. 
He  sent  the  rich  young  man  about  his  business, 
sorrowful.  He  was  faithful  with  Mary  and 
Martha.  It  is  abundantly  worth  while  to  re- 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


81 


member  that  when  God  sends  one  man  our  way, 
he  is  a  congregation.  The  whole  world  is  at 
chinch  just  then.  It  has  been  said  the  Ethio¬ 
pian  eunuch  was  the  Continent  of  Africa. 
Whether  that,  or  one  black  man  more,  Philip 
followed  his  Master,  and  so  should  we. 

This  concrete  care  of  the  Almighty  for 
individuals  is  one  of  the  elemental  realities. 
Humanity  was  with  him  the  building  of  the  one 
man  and  the  one  woman.  “God  hath  made  of 
one  blood  all  nations  of  men.”  The  Bertillon 
system  is  based  on  the  fact  that  no  two  human 
beings  are  exactly  alike.  They  are  bom  one  at 
a  time.  They  die  one  by  one.  They  stand  alone 
in  judgment.  They  are  born  again  one  by  one. 
Perhaps  the  unity  of  God  is  no  more  marvel¬ 
ously  illustrated  than  by  this  unity  of  man. 
Made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  each  man  irre¬ 
trievably  himself,  we  believe  in  one  God  with 
small  trouble.  There  is  nothing  surprising  then 
that  in  the  outstanding  record  Jesus  was  a  per¬ 
sonal  worker.  As  revealing  God,  he  could  have 
been  nothing  other. 

An  early  thing  to  be  said  is  that  personal  work 
is  preeminently  a  matter  of  choice.  A  minister’s 
public  work  is  inevitable.  The  limelight  goes 
with  the  job.  The  flash-light  is  his  own.  His 
private  personal  ministry  he  looks  up.  Should 
he  care  for  it,  get  his  heart  in  it,  he  will  get  it 


82 


SENT  FORTH 


in  plenty.  Should  it  be  otherwise,  the  world 
will  bring  little  to  him. 

It  is  a  pitiful  hour  when  one  finds  his  people 
leave  him  alone.  It  tells  him  what  he  is.  It  is  a 
compliment  when  a  fellow  mortal  brings  one 
his  cares,  or  joys,  or  troubles.  He  feels  there  is 
help  in  him.  The  man  who  said  things  first 
about  it  being  well  to  have  the  good  will  of  a  dog, 
had  this  in  mind.  One  at  whom  baby  or  child 
will  smile  need  not  fear.  There  is  work  in  the 
world  for  him. 

So  the  earth  found  it  in  its  heart  to  come  to 
Jesus.  The  thief  on  the  cross  knew  that  Jesus 
had  a  kingdom  on  his  hands,  but  he  cried, 
“Remember  me/’  One  so  wonderful  could 
take  on  one  sinner  more.  The  disciples  had 
some  ponderous  ideas,  but  the  neighbors  sus¬ 
pected  the  Master  might  pet  their  babies  a 
little,  and  like  it.  They  did  not  suspect  wrongly. 
The  little  men  and  women  had  room  in  his 
heart,  surely.  Jesus  was  glad  to  go  to  Bethany, 
and  it  was  that  Bethany  was  glad  to  have 
him  come.  There  are  few  things  more  beau¬ 
tiful  than  the  way  the  crowds  came  to  the 
Lord  with  their  sick  and  suffering  ones.  The 
tender-heartedness  with  which  hospitals  are 
soon  crowTded  in  our  day  is  of  the  same  weave. 
If  it  could  be  the  churches  could  relieve  the 
sorrows  of  all  the  worthy  poor,  how  wide  the 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


83 


open  door!  The  woman  in  the  city  who  was  a 
sinner  stood  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  weeping.  From 
her  deep  well  of  shame  she  saw  the  stars  in  his 
kindly  face.  The  doctor  of  the  law,  rich  and 
proud,  came  to  Jesus  by  night.  He  knew  he 
was  a  teacher  come  from  God.  The  pious  rich 
young  ruler  came  running,  came  kneeling,  to 
Jesus.  Jesus  had  word  and  help  for  wealth, 
and  power,  and  holiness,  as  surely  as  for  poverty, 
and  misery,  and  wrong.  Whether  men  come  to 
us,  or  feel  we  care  to  have  them  come,  is  a 
mighty  interrogation. 

But  how  did  Jesus  deal  with  individuals? 
Just  as  we  must.  According  to  providential 
leadings  and  openings.  Weary  with  His  jour¬ 
ney,  Jesus  sits  on  the  well.  Thirsty,  he  asks 
a  drink.  Being  a  Jew,  the  Samaritan  woman  is 
startled.  The  battle  is  on.  And  the  woman 
loses  and  gains.  Jesus  turns  the  water  into 
wine.  A  nobleman  is  there  whose  son  is  sick 
at  Capernaum.  One  who  can  turn  water  into 
wine  might  surely  turn  sickness  into  health. 
“Come  down  ere  my  child  die.”  “You  would 
see  signs  and  wonders?”  “Not  at  all,  I  would 
see  my  child  alive.”  “Go  thy  way,  thy  son 
liveth.”  “At  what  hour  did  he  begin  to  mend?” 
“At  the  very  hour  that  Jesus  spoke.”  The 
mighty  Master  did  not  even  need  to  be  there. 
So  the  nobleman  believes.  Every  step  is  a  step 


84 


SENT  FORTH 


onward.  Here  stands  a  man  blind  from  his 
birth.  The  disciples,  the  neighbors,  the  Phar¬ 
isees,  all  get  interested  in  the  theology  of  his 
congenital  blindness,  and  the  recent  stubborn 
fact  that  he  sees.  Jesus  never  forgets  the  man. 
Outside  the  synagogue  and  in  disgrace,  he  finds 
him  and  leads  him  into  light  of  soul,  as  he  had 
led  him  into  light  of  eyes.  No  strained  unnat¬ 
ural  movement  anywhere.  With  a  willing 
heart,  method  is  forgettable.  “Settle  not 
beforehand  what  ye  shall  say.  It  shall  be  given 
you  in  that  hour.”  The  line  of  duty  is  self- 
supporting.  The  great  undertaking  for  the 
minister  is  to  be  entirely  willing  toward  per¬ 
sonal  work.  The  way  will  follow. 

Why  take  time  in  the  emphasis  of  these 
things?  Because,  for  one  reason  and  another, 
they  are  the  very  things  the  average  minister 
forgets.  He  allows  his  other  pressing  and 
public  duties  to  crowd  this  call  aside.  The 
priest  and  the  Levite  were  not  loafing.  They 
were  not  hardhearted.  They  thought  of  the 
man  among  thieves  as  a  matter  they  might 
look  after  later.  They  were  ridden  of  their 
routine.  Personal  work  at  bottom  is  the  only 
real  work.  A  crowd  is  only  a  multiplied  man. 
A  public  affair  is  only  a  private  affair  out-of- 
doors.  All  our  teaching,  ritual,  philanthropy,  is 
simply  to  get  at  the  man.  Why  fall  in  love  with 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


85 


rod  and  line  when  it  is  fish  in  the  creel  that 
count?  Hook,  and  bait,  and  fisherman  are  silly 
without  fish. 

Again  our  emphasis  may  help  us  in  keeping 
small  affairs  in  their  places.  How  much  time 
we  waste  over  the  secondary!  Shall  I  go  out 
calling  on  the  families  alone?  Should  I  have  a 
study  in  the  church?  How  much  attention 
should  go  to  a  given  case?  A  white  soul  is 
safe  anywhere.  A  reputation  is  immortal  till 
its  work  is  done.  The  cross  of  Jesus  was  a  cross 
of  shame.  To  live  in  dread  of  its  like  is  folly. 

The  supposed  dignity  and  reserve  of  the 
individual  soul  is  greatly  stressed  in  our  day.  I 
must  not  press  religion  upon  my  neighbor,  for 
his  inmost  life  is  sacred  to  him.  Following  the 
line  of  Providence  will  care  for  all  this  and  more. 
One  cannot  find  a  single  case  of  bad  manners  in 
all  the  personal  work  of  Jesus.  There  need  be 
none  in  ours.  One  does  not  cease  to  be  a 
gentleman  when  he  turns  saint.  Mary  was 
entirely  as  courteous  as  Martha,  to  say  no 
more.  If  any  man  opens  his  door  at  your 
knock,  walk  in.  If  he  will  not,  walk  on.  “Ye 
shall  not  have  gone  over  the  cities  of  Israel  till 
the  Son  of  Alan  be  come.” 

The  Good  Shepherd  is  considerately  good.  He 
is  good  at  heart.  He  is  kind.  “He  calleth  his 
own  sheep  by  name.”  “The  sheep  follow  Him.” 


86 


SENT  FORTH 


“The  hireling  fleeth,  .  .  .  and  careth  not  for 
the  sheep.”  The  Good  Shepherd  cares,  and 
therefore  knows  his  sheep,  and  his  sheep  know 
him.  He  lays  down  his  life  that  he  cares.  The 
good  pastor  is  a  man  with  a  heart. 

The  rage  for  utility,  the  practical,  as  men  say, 
often  smothers  the  affections.  As  if  hearts  were 
not  practical.  The  average  pastor  foregathers 
with  complexities  and  perplexities  till  he  is 
likely  to  get  automatic.  A  good  rule  is  to  take 
on  enough  things  only,  and  such  things,  as  per¬ 
mit  the  heart  to  function.  With  a  pastor  to  be 
automatic  is  to  be  no  pastor.  A  pastor  is  some¬ 
thing  finer  than  a  phonograph.  The  profes¬ 
sional  tone  and  manner  is  not  quite  as  bad  as 
the  small-pox,  but  the  pastor  begins  where  the 
machine  leaves  off.  The  unusual  play  on  the 
pastor’s  sympathies  and  affections  tends  and 
tempts  to  cant  and  hollowness.  It  is  well  to 
guard  one’s  self.  An  actor  conquers  in  this 
matter;  a  minister  surely  should.  The  Nestor 
of  public  speaking  at  Northwestern  University, 
Robert  McLean  Cumnock,  would  never  admit 
his  ready  tears  in  a  pathetic  recitation  were 
ever  forced.  One  who  came  to  know  of  his 
great  heart  always  believed  him. 

Sometimes  the  intellectual  ambition  glazes 
over  the  play  of  the  heart.  Culture  is  on 
vacation  in  the  hour  of  emotion,  it  is  supposed. 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


87 


It  would  rather  seem  that  expression  took  more 
wit  than  suppression,  in  emotion  as  in  anything 
other.  An  overdose  of  the  efficient  likely  had 
as  much  to  do  with  the  recent  Teutonic  par¬ 
oxysm  as  some  other  matters.  Men  do  not 
laugh  at  their  feelings  and  grow  wise.  The  head 
and  hands  of  the  world  are  forever  in  debt  to 
its  heart.  An  underestimate  of  affectional 
values  is  as  dangerous  as  an  overrating.  Our 
people  should  feel  as  certainly  as  they  some¬ 
times  respect  and  admire.  Nor  can  love  be 
counterfeited.  We  must  consider,  till  a  genuine 
love  for  our  people,  all  sorts  of  people,  sweeps 
awTay  every  indifference  and  distaste.  It  is 
easy  to  hunt  up  our  congenial  friends.  Do  not 
even  the  publicans  so?  A  compassion  toward 
any  kind  of  man  that  leaves  one  eager  to  com¬ 
pany  with  him  is  the  sort  of  the  Shepherd 
Christ. 

Another  thing  is  true.  Sheep  are  sometimes 
contrary.  The  shepherd  has  a  call  to  be 
efficient;  just  anybody  may  not  keep  sheep. 
Jesus  went  to  folks  who  did  not  care.  He  did 
not  press  himself  long.  His  earnestness  was 
never  impertinence.  But  he  went.  He  taught 
his  disciples  to  go  into  another  city  when  the 
nearer  doors  were  closed.  They  were  not  to  give 
that  which  wras  holy  to  the  dogs,  nor  cast  their 
pearls  before  swdne.  Only  they  were  to  hear 


88 


SENT  FORTH 


the  bark  and  squeal.  Where  there  is  a  kennel 
or  sty  there  is  usually  a  house.  There  were 
times  when  he  did  his  preaching  with  a  whip. 
It  was  not  often.  The  Hohenzollerns  of  the 
earth  are  scarce.  To  be  scourged  of  such  a 
whip,  and  for  such  a  cause,  is  shame  unspeakable. 
The  temple  of  God  had  been  made  a  den  of 
thieves.  There  may  be  genuine  kindness  in  a 
sermon  with  a  whip. 

The  Pharisees  gave  Jesus  no  water  for  his 
feet,  no  kiss,  no  oil  for  his  head.  They  did  give 
him  criticism.  “This  woman  is  a  sinner.” 
And  Jesus  allows  her  touch.  Nevertheless, 
with  the  north  wind  blowing,  Jesus  went  and 
took  dinner  with  the  Pharisee.  He  sent  his 
disciples  to  a  village  of  the  Samaritans  to  make 
ready  for  him.  He  will  bring  them  a  blessing. 
They  see  him  headed  for  Jerusalem;  they  will 
not  receive  him.  So  he  went  to  another  village. 
But  he  had  stood  at  their  door.  One  of  the 
most  significant  of  the  Bible  pictures  is  one 
where  it  reads,  “Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door,  and 
knock.”  An  Omnipotent  one  might  walk  right 
in,  but  he  stands  at  the  door  and  knocks.  When 
the  swine  were  drowned  in  the  sea,  the  owners 
beseech  of  Jesus  that  he  will  depart.  He  is  too 
small  a  price  for  pork.  “And  he  entered  into  a 
ship,  and  passed  over.”  But  he  had  stood  at 
the  door  and  knocked. 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


89 


It  is  possible  to  overdo  and  underdo.  The 
ordinary  pastor  is  supposed  to  have  some  wit. 
The  temptation  of  the  congenial  is  always  with 
us,  of  course,  but  giving  the  whole  parish 
its  rights,  relaxing  with  the  congenial,  is  rule 
enough.  A  pastor  is  foolish  to  make  a  drudge 
impression.  A  treadmill  pastorate  is  no  pas¬ 
torate.  It  is  rarely  wise  to  call  when  ill  or 
weary.  One  will  get  into  the  hospital  often 
enough  without  carrying  it  around  with  him. 
It  is  very  possible  to  find  pastoral  duties  largely 
enjoyable.  When  one  reads  that  Jesus  “went 
about  doing  good,”  he  feels  his  Master  was 
delighted  with  every  minute  of  it.  The  Edenic 
picture  of  the  Lord  God,  “walking  in  the  garden 
in  the  cool  of  the  day,”  is  a  happy  one.  The 
Hebrew  read  it  as  the  “breeze  of  the  day.”  The 
pastor  should  never  forget  that  he  is  to  go  about 
as  an  inspiration.  Neither  perspiration  nor 
desperation  is  called  for.  A  breeze  is  another 
matter.  If  the  cool  of  the  day  is  not  in  his  soul, 
a  visit  at  the  beach  or  in  the  mountains,  or  near 
the  feet  of  the  Eternal  Quiet,  is  the  prescrip¬ 
tion.  The  sense  of  toil  and  burden  is  not  of  the 
five  senses  with  the  pastor.  He  is  to  be  effi¬ 
ciently  good. 

Better  than  all,  the  Good  Shepherd  is 
shepherd  of  his  own.  The  sheep  are  his  sheep. 
He  knows  them  one  by  one,  and  name  by  name. 


90 


SENT  FORTH 


No  father  loses  his  child  in  his  family.  Each  is 

*/ 

ever  of  the  flock,  though  called  to  another  fold. 
In  the  fold  of  the  upper  skies,  his  heart  still 
claims  its  own.  So  it  happens  no  pastor  should 
get  over  anxious  as  to  his  particular  fold.  He 
might  get  into  a  place  that  is  not  his  own. 
Whether  his  parish  is  large  or  small,  he  must  be 
at  home.  It  is  woe  to  him  that  cannot  belong, 
As  rapidly  as  possible,  one  should  bring  his 
people  to  a  sense  of  obligation  toward  him. 
Illness,  and  trouble,  and  joy,  weddings  and 
funerals,  special  functions  of  any  sort,  will 
find  the  good  pastor  not  very  far  away. 
The  sense  of  loyalty  to  a  stated  pastor  is  a 
good  running  start,  but  one  is  not  a  pastor 
till  his  person  has  gently  crowded  aside  his 
office. 

Especially  as  one  has  children  born  of  his 
loins,  as  his  voice  calls,  and  his  hand  leads  some 
darkened  soul  to  light,  will  he  come  to  feel  he  is 
shepherd  of  his  own.  The  family  feeling  in  a 
church  is  a  priceless  treasure.  A  band  of  good 
people  the  writer  knows  has  called  itself  “The 
Church  of  the  Family  Circle.”  Church  love  is  a 
rarer  gem  than  church  pride.  This  latter,  it  is 
suspected,  is  sometimes  paste.  When  people 
linger  along  the  aisles  as  if  loth  to  leave  each 
other  and  the  Father’s  house,  white  angels  slip 
aside  in  tears,  and  a  softer  sweeter  music  sings 


THE  SHEPHERD  CHRIST 


91 


their  joy.  The  informal  thing  is  usually  the 
real  thing. 

It  is  commonly  a  mistake  to  lengthen  a 
pastorate  when  any  considerable  number  of 
people  are  weary  over  it.  It  is  a  peculiar 
mentality  that  is  so  affected,  to  be  sure,  but 
these  queer  bodies  do  not  grow  less  with  time. 
The  trouble  is,  the  family  feeling  breaks  up,  and 
the  few  distress  the  many.  The  average  church 
would  wisely  double  its  Official  Board.  The 
burden  sweetens  the  bother.  To  belong,  to  be 
at  home,  is  a  vital  atmosphere  about  a  church, 
and  great  prices  may  well  be  paid  for  it.  Simon 
Magus  is  not  so  great  in  more  of  a  crowd.  The 
frequent  habit  of  building  choirs  with  money 
and  voices,  rather  than  with  souls  in  white 
raiment,  works  large  damage.  Even  good 
music  should  not  break  up  the  family.  The  good 
shepherd  will  be  shepherd  of  his  own. 

“We  lean  on  others  as  we  walk 
Life’s  twilight  path,  with  pitfalls  strewn, 

And  ’twere  an  idle  boast  to  talk 
Of  treading  that  dim  path  alone.” 


BLUE  MONDAY 


It  is  hardly  wise  to  take  it  for  granted  that  the 
pastor  is  a  good  man.  It  was  an  apostle  who 
dreaded  that  he  might  become  a  castaway. 

The  modern  minister  works  no  harder  nor  for 
longer  hours  than  his  brother  of  the  olden  times.  Re 
does  work  at  more  things.  He  has  more  fingers  on 
his  hands.  It  is  his  task  to  see  that  they  do  not 
strangle  his  soul. 

It  is  a  pitif  ul  hour  when  one  finds  his  people  leave 
him  alone.  It  tells  him  what  he  is. 

The  priest  and  the  Levite  were  not  loafing.  They 
were  not  hard-hearted.  The  man  among  thieves 
might  be  looked  after  later.  They  were  ridden  of 
their  routine. 

One  cannot  find  a  case  of  bad  manners  in  all  the 
personal  work  of  Jesus.  One  does  not  cease  to  be  a 
gentleman  that  he  turns  saint. 

Men  do  not  laugh  at  their  feelings  and  grow  wise. 
The  head  and  hands  of  the  world  are  forever  in 
debt  to  its  heart. 

There  may  be  genuine  kindness  in  a  sermon  with 
a  whip. 

A  pastor  is  foolish  to  make  a  drudge  impression. 
A  treadmill  pastorate  is  no  pastorate. 

One  is  not  a  pastor  till  his  person  has  gently 
crowded  aside  his  office. 


92 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  CULTURAL  CHRIST 

It  is  probably  the  common  thought  that  God 
reveals  himself  because  he  cares  to.  He 
chooses  to  speak.  He  might  choose  to  be 
silent.  It  is  the  better  concept  that  he  could  not 
be  dumb.  Of  Infinite  justice,  he  cannot  live 
to  himself.  Of  Infinite  love,  he  must  love 
outside.  As  any  normal  woman  aches  to  get 
her  fingers  on  a  baby,  so  God  wearies  for  other 
than  himself.  God  is  of  infinite  power.  Simply 
to  have  and  hold  would  be  to  such  an  one  ennui 
and  stagnation.  Infinity  caged  is  a  contra¬ 
diction  in  terms.  It  is  said  of  a  poet,  “He 
lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  came.” 
The  inventor  contrives  from  the  cradle.  An 
aesthetic  body  likes  flowers,  music,  rhythm, 
beauty  before  he  can  tell  why.  So  God  ex¬ 
presses  himself,  being  God.  Thus  men  have 
wondered  if  even  matter  is  not  eternal.  It 
may  be  more  than  incidental  that  a  Hebrew 
word  in  Genesis  for  “create,”  means  to  cut, 
fashion,  shape  into  form.  When  God  speaks  it 
is  from  the  overflow.  He  enjoys  it  beyond  any 
wTlo  hear.  Who  has  not  marked  the  profuseness 

93 


94 


SENT  FORTH 


of  nature?  Men  call  it  waste.  If  it  did  no  more 
than  envisage  the  unimaginable  wealth  of  God, 
it  is  not  waste.  We  simply  do  not  follow. 

We  shall  see  that  God  reveals  himself  in 
Christ  as  Ruler  and  King.  The  soul  of  order  and 
of  law,  he  could  not  create  an  irresponsible 
world.  Things  might  happen.  Being  created 
intelligently,  nothing  happens.  So  with  in¬ 
telligent  beings  on  hand,  God  holds  himself 
under  bonds  for  speech  with  them.  The  most 
utterly  responsible  being  in  all  the  universe  is 
the  God  of  the  universe.  It  is  thought  and  said 
that  the  source  of  law  is  lawless.  “The  king  can 
do  no  wrong.”  The  wiser  thought  is,  an 
infinity  of  love,  wisdom,  power,  justice  is  carried 
into  a  superlative  responsibility.  “He  that 
teacheth  men  knowledge,  shall  he  not  know?” 
“Shall  not  the  judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?” 
“God  is  love.”  These  superlatives  are  to  say 
that  God  holds  himself  to  a  superlative  standard. 
He  is  as  good  as  we  are,  and  better.  A  man  of 
genuine  veracity  needs  no  whip  about  his  head. 
His  disposition  is  a  thousand  whips.  A  woman’s 
white  soul  is  safer  in  her  own  keeping  than  in 
that  of  “all  the  king’s  horses  and  all  the  king’s 
men.”  So  the  earth  has  rest  in  its  God.  He  will 
forever  do  the  best,  for  the  best  of  reasons: 
he  is  the  best. 

What  greater  incentive  to  law-abiding  among 


THE  CULTURAL  CHRIST 


95 


men  than  this  conformity  to  standard  in  God? 
How  utterly  heinous  and  hideous  are  thievery, 
lying,  licentiousness,  in  such  a  vision !  It  is  this 
that  makes  the  ordinary  citizen  impatient  with 
an  insistent  pacifism.  How  one  can  inherit  and 
enjoy  all  the  benefits  of  good  government,  his 
very  life  and  belongings  conditioned  thereby,  and 
for  any  reason  refuse  to  go  any  reasonable  limit 
in  defense  thereof,  he  cannot  see.  The  man  who 
recently  said,  “The  pacifist  denies  that  there 
is  anything  on  earth  worth  fighting  for,”  put  it 
exactlv.  That  for  conscience  sake,  and  with  the 
great  God  in  his  eyes,  a  man  should  write 
himself  down  a  nonentitv,  is  an  unthinkable 
situation  to  coordinate  with  sanity. 

When  we  come  to  consider  God  as  Teacher  or 
Revealer,  this  line  of  reasoning  is  illuminative. 
In  the  early  verses  of  John’s  Gospel,  it  is  master¬ 
ful.  “In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.” 
“The  same,”  the  Word,  “was  in  the  beginning 
with  God.”  “All  things  were  made  by  him,” 
the  Word.  “Without  him,”  the  Word,  “was 
not  anything  made  that  was  made,”  “In  him 
was  life” — in  the  Word.  “The  life  was  the  light 
of  men.”  The  Word  was  the  light  of  men. 
“The  light,”  the  Word,  “shineth  in  darkness; 
and  the  darkness  comprehendeth  it  not.” 

Of  course  wTe  know  that  “'The  Word”  is  a 


96 


SENT  FORTH 


New-Testament  name  for  Christ.  But  names, 
like  other  words,  are  signs  of  ideas.  It  is  greatly 
more  so  in  the  Bible  than  in  ordinary  modern 
usage.  The  idea  of  revealing,  of  making  known 
something  hidden,  is  the  vital  concept  in  any 
word.  Thoughts  are  secrets  except  for  words. 
Men  think  in  words.  The  mind  is  a  Sahara 
except  for  words.  Jesus  called  4 ‘The  Word,”  as 
an  arbitrary  appellation,  only  a  handle  to  hold 
him  with,  is  against  all  Scripture  practice.  No 
Bible  name  for  Jesus  is  insignificant.  How  rich, 
then,  those  long- weighed  sayings  of  the  Patmos 
seer,  as  to  Jesus  the  Word!  Whatever  other, 
he  was  surely  the  Cultural  Christ. 

If  “In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,”  then, 
Biblewise,  culture  is  of  the  very  philosophy  of 
existence.  We  not  only  live  and  learn  but  we 
live  to  learn.  “The  heavens  declare  the  glory 
of  God.”  “Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and 
night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge.  .  .  . 
Their  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and 
their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world.”  “When 
the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by 
nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these, 
having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves.” 
“God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  man¬ 
ners  spake  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the 
prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto 
us  by  his  Son.”  “I  must  preach  the  kingdom  of 


THE  CULTURAL  CHRIST 


97 


God  .  .  .  for  therefore  am  I  sent.”  “We 
know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God.” 
“He  opened  his  mouth,  and  taught  them, 
saying.”  Thus  in  numberless  emphatic  forms 
the  great  Book  draws  the  picture  of  the  cultural 
Christ.  “The  lord  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto 
thee  a  Prophet  from  the  midst  of  thee,  .  .  .  like 
unto  me;  unto  him  ye  shall  hearken.” 

That  “The  Word  was  with  God”  is  to  prepare 
the  mind  for  the  larger  concept  that  “The 
Word  was  God.”  As  God  is  love,  so  with  John 
God  is  culture.  All  knowledge  is  sacred.  There 
is  no  secular  learning.  The  scientist  is  also  a 
priest.  The  great  world  is  a  temple.  The  soul 
of  a  man  is  interwoven  with  his  brain.  It  is  not 
disputable  that  religion  in  the  earth  has  lost 
immeasurably  by  narrowing  itself.  The  Jews 
coolly  set  the  whole  Gentile  world  to  one  side, 
one  man  giving  law  to  ninety -nine.  Romanism 
interpreted  all  religion  in  its  own  terms.  It  is 
hardly  within  a  hundred  years  that  Christendom 
has  been  planetary  in  its  concept.  The  heathen 
w^ere  all  lost.  And  they  were  the  vast  majority. 
Calvinism  narrowed  religion  to  the  elect.  A 
recent  great  deliverance  by  a  great  man  insists 
with  emphasis  that  the  one  word,  “redemption,” 
is  the  great  dominant  word  in  life  and  religion. 
Then  more  than  all  other  the  world  is  a  hospital. 
Then  the  native  air  of  men  is  distress.  Then 


98 


SENT  FORTH 


human  life  is  an  emergency.  Yet  in  the 
beginning,  it  was  the  Word  that  was  with  God. 
Jesus,  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life,  surely 
has  other  air  than  the  anaesthetic.  Human 
life  must  be  at  school  beyond  common  belief. 
“And  the  Word  was  God.”  God  is  essentially 
knowledge.  That  4 ‘God  is  love”  we  do  not 
object.  We  think  it  a  wonderful  emphasis  on 
the  kindness  of  the  Eternal.  So  that  4 4 The 
Word  was  God”  is  also  an  emphasis  on  the 
wisdom  of  the  Eternal.  Everything  other  that 
God  may  be  is  shot  through  with  love.  We 
trust  his  justice  that  it  is  kindly.  We  are  glad 
of  his  power,  for  it  is  never  cruel.  He  is  im¬ 
mutable;  His  love  will  never  change  or  pass. 
As  truly  as  God  is  love,  so  truly  is  he  wisdom. 
4 4 And  the  Word  was  God.”  The  brightness  of 
his  glory,  the  express  image  of  his  person,  is 
the  Cultural  Christ. 

“The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.” 
Why  does  John  emphasize  what  he  so  lately 
said?  For  the  simple  reason  that  men  are  so 
likely  to  forget.  A  negligible  Christ  has  been 
the  sorrow  of  the  world.  A  Christ  who  was  but 
a  man,  a  Christ  who  was  only  a  teacher,  a 
Christ  who  did  not  atone;  a  Christ  of  ritual, 
tradition,  creed,  ecclesiasticism  against  all 
these  true  and  partial  concepts  John  sets  his 
superlative  Christ  who  was  nothing  less  than 


THE  CULTURAL  CHRIST 


99 


God.  “In  the  beginning/’  from  the  very 
earliest  hour  where  we  need  to  think,  he  was 
forever  God.  “The  same  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God.”  For  a  large  Christianity  there 
must  be  forever  a  large  Christ.  The  Cultural 
Christ  is  never  negligible. 

“All  things  were  made  by  him;  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made.” 
The  Cultural  Christ  was  the  Creator.  All 
creation  has  a  cultural  philosophy.  That 
creation  antedated  sin  this  cultural  philosophy 
is  primary.  It  is  still  primary  with  sin  in  the 
world.  God  did  not  drop  his  wide  designs  that 
men  went  wrong.  He  did  not  go  on  a  waiting 
list.  The  earth  is  a  school  to-day  as  certainly 
as  a  shop,  a  hospital,  and  a  court.  The  earth 
is  a  shop,  a  court,  and  a  school  more  fundamen¬ 
tally  than  it  is  a  hospital.  Were  there  any  need 
for  a  dominant  Christ,  it  would  be  the  Cultural 
Christ. 

What  a  vision  is  this  of  a  unified  universe! 
Unified  around  the  Cultural  Christ:  all  things 
made  by  him;  nothing  made  without  him;  one 
author,  one  world,  one  humanity,  one  phi¬ 
losophy,  one  purpose,  one  destiny,  one  revealing 
of  the  only  God.  What  a  vision  splendid  that 
there  is  nothing  insignificant!  “Without  him 
was  not  anything  made  that  was  made.” 
Without  the  “Word,”  the  meaningful  thing,  is 


100 


SENT  FORTH 


there  nothing  that  is.  It  was  poetry  in  Shake¬ 
speare,  but  it  is  the  coldest,  most  inescapable 
fact  that  there  are  4 ‘books  in  the  running 
brooks,  sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  every¬ 
thing.” 

“In  him  was  life;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
men.”  It  is  the  life  eternal,  the  life  of  God  in 
the  soul,  that  is  in  mind.  Vegetable  life,  brute 
life,  ordinary  physical  life  are  at  the  side.  The 
life  that  is  the  light  of  men,  that  interprets 
every  other,  that  is  to  man  his  superlative 
glory,  that,  worked  out  universally,  would  make 
a  heaven  out  of  earth — this  is  the  life  that  we 
are  to  consider.  That,  says  the  apostle  who 
understood  his  Master  better  than  anv  other, 
is  possible  only  through  the  Word,  the  Cultural 
Christ.  There  is  no  piety  without  brains.  The 
frequent  contrast  between  the  emotions  and  the 
intellect,  prayer  and  study,  is  simply  time  and 
energy  wasted.  Prayer  is  study  and  study  is 
prayer.  There  is  no  choice  between  hands  and 
feet,  no  quarrel  between  the  senses,  no  friction 
of  the  bush  and  rose.  The  truth  has  a  thousand 
teachers. 

These  words  are  written  with  the  profound 
conviction  that  the  Cultural  Christ  has  been 
woefully  underestimated.  Precisely  as  John 
says,  “The  light  sliineth  in  darkness;  and  the 
darkness  comprehendeth  it  not.”  There  is  no 


THE  CULTURAL  CHRIST 


101 


ethical  note  here,  no  word  of  distress,  simply 
the  incitement  to  seek  the  Cultural  Christ. 
The  loaves  and  fishes,  the  cry  of  pain,  the 
march  of  the  race  are  ever  near  us,  but  closer 
than  all  is  the  call  to  learn. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


A  man  of  genuine  veracity  needs  no  whip  about  his 
head.  A  woman’s  white  soul  is  safer  in  her  own 
keeping  than  in  the  care  of  all  the  king’s  horses  and 
all  of  the  king’s  men. 

All  knowledge  is  sacred.  There  is  no  secular 
learning.  The  scientist  is  a  priest.  The  great  world 
is  a  temple.  The  soul  of  man  is  interwoven  with  his 
brain. 

The  mighty  God  did  not  drop  his  wide  designs 
when  men  went  wrong.  He  did  not  go  on  a  waiting 
list.  The  earth  is  a  school  to-day  as  certainly  as  a 
hospital,  a  shop  and  a  court. 

There  is  no  choice  between  hands  and  feet,  no 
quarrel  of  the  senses,  no  friction  of  bush  and  rose. 
Each  is  a  teacher  of  the  truth.  Prayer  is  study  and 
study  is  prayer.  One’s  library  is  a  temple. 

Simply  to  have  and  to  hold  would  be  ennui  to 
such  an  one  as  God. 

No  Bible  name  for  Jesus  is  insignificant. 

Religion  in  the  earth  has  lost  immeasurably  by 
narrowing  itself. 


102 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE 

That  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  a  great  teacher  in 
the  earth  is  nowhere  in  argument.  His  Deity, 
miracles,  atoning  are  an  arena.  His  culture 
is  a  throne.  There  are  many  masters  among 
men,  but  the  Rabbi  of  Israel  holds  his  place. 
Human  history  is  not  history  in  silence  with 
his  name.  He  may  be  doubted.  He  has  been 
antagonized.  He  cannot  be  overlooked. 

Teaching  was  of  his  mission.  It  was  not 
incidental.  It  was  mandatory.  “He  went 
about  teaching.”  “He  opened  his  mouth  and 
taught  them.”  “We  know  that  thou  art  a 
teacher  come  from  God.”  As  he  came  to 
preach,  to  toil,  to  save,  to  give  his  life  a  ransom 
for  many,  so  he  came  “to  teach  the  way  of  God 
in  truth.”  “To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for 
this  cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should 
bear  witness  unto  the  truth.”  To  teach  was 
not  a  happening  with  the  Nazarene.  It  went 
with  his  day’s  work. 

The  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  was  frankly 
spiritual.  He  was  a  teacher  come  from  God. 
His  classes  study  to  a  purpose  of  his  own.  His 

103 


104 


SENT  FORTH 


curriculum  should  be  judged  in  light  of  that 
intent.  Does  a  school  live  up  to  its  charter,  we 
do  not  criticize.  No  cult  has  yet  arisen  the 
earth  dares  to  substitute  for  the  Jesus  pro¬ 
jection.  It  is  a  universal  suspicion  that  failure 
to  resolutely  apply  it  is  the  wrong  and  sorrow 
of  the  planet. 

From  thought  of  place,  time,  and  condition, 
the  woman  of  Samaria  was  shut  up  alone  with 
God,  as  being  Spirit,  and  whose  worship  was 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Nicodemus  came  to 
Jesus  on  the  level  of  scholarship.  He  would 
learn  more,  know  more.  To  his  amazement,  he 
heard  he  was  to  be  more.  “Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  born  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God.”  Would  men  make  him 
king,  Jesus  hides  himself.  Must  he  have 
money,  the  mouth  of  a  fish  is  his  bank  so 
negligible  is  wealth.  Priest,  ruler,  rabbi  all 
meet  him  on  the  horizontal.  His  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  -world. 

The  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  was  psycho¬ 
logical.  Our  latest  half  century  is  wondrous 
proud  in  its  final  mapping  of  the  human  mind 
according  to  gray  matter.  Psycholog}7  is  our 
great  last  word.  The  laboratory  of  Jesus 
nineteen  centuries  since  was  its  forecast.  The 
wonder  is  we  find  the  secret  so  late.  The  world 
of  the  year  One,  read  success  and  life  in  terms 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  105 


of  kings  and  combinings.  Our  world  tells  us 
the  whole  business  is  only  a  convenience. 
Democracy,  the  rule  of  the  ruled,  is  now  the 
wisdom  of  the  earth.  No  one  force  under 
heaven  or  among  men  has  so  brought  about  this 
end  as  the  gospel  of  the  Nazarene.  Does  the 
individual  do  well,  the  world  is  safe.  The 
message  already  looks  immortal.  Not  long 
since  a  man  of  many  millions  died,  as  he  had 
hoped,  a  poor  man.  He  had  succeeded  in 
giving  away  nine  tenths  of  it  all.  And  it  was 
Jesus  who  said  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  things  possessed.  Just  now  the 
ideals  of  the  world  are  a  league  of  nations,  an 
end  to  war,  a  square  deal  for  men,  a  living 
chance  for  immortality.  It  was  Jesus  who  said 
the  meek,  the  merciful,  the  pure  in  heart  were 
the  salt  of  the  earth  and  the  light  of  the  world. 
A  psychology  that  could  endure  and  conquer 
through  twenty  centuries  is  probably  not  far 
wrong. 

So  the  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  is  utterly 
human.  4 'The  common  people  heard  him 
gladly.'5  The  magnet  is  not  far  to  find.  The 
high  level  of  his  utterances  had  its  due  weight. 
The  essentially  large  outlines  of  the  mental 
man  everywhere  respond  to  large  appeal.  The 
eloquence  of  the  red  Indian,  the  seafaring  man, 
the  mountaineer  is  illustrative.  The  helpful 


106 


SENT  FORTH 


sympathy  with  pain  and  trouble  was  no  small 
factor.  Men  feel  as  deeply  as  they  think.  The 
neglect  of  caste  would  attract.  Caste  is 
artificial.  The  human  is  indigenous.  Rich  and 
poor,  high  and  low,  cultured  and  provincial, 
men,  women,  and  children  all  found  their 
interesting  portion.  The  domestic,  democratic, 
urban,  rural  air  gave  everyone  cheer  to  breathe. 
The  hen  and  chickens,  broom  and  whip,  leaven 
and  meal,  sowing,  reaping,  building,  mustard 
seed,  lilies  of  the  field,  birds  of  the  air,  thorns, 
tares  all  found  folks  where  they  lived.  The 
irrepressible  optimism  would  get  response.  Sin, 
sickness,  death,  trouble  were  given  a  new  per¬ 
spective.  The  whole  man  and  his  whole  life 
so  intrigued,  one  would  be  an  oddity  did  he  not 
somewhere  stop,  look,  and  listen.  That  the 
antagonism  of  sin  was  never  met  by  com¬ 
promise,  but  always  by  conflict,  would  not 
drive  so  much  as  draw.  There  is  little  more 
human  than  the  wrong.  The  human  teacher 
with  a  human  message,  and  all  for  human  good, 
one  should  wonder  there  was  ever  an  indiffer¬ 
ence. 

The  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  was  con¬ 
structive.  “X  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfill.”  There  was  no  good  thing  he  could  not 
use.  He  built  his  gospel  out  of  the  planet. 
The  frequent  concept,  even  among  good  men, 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  107 


of  a  disappointed  God,  waiting,  finger  in  mouth, 
till  another  age  and  better  environment  shall 
fulfill  his  will,  is  as  far  from  the  fact  as  it  can 
well  get.  ‘‘Known  unto  God  are  all  his  works 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world.”  He  has  been 
building  every  minute,  adding  stone  to  stone 
out  of  all  nations,  under  every  sun.  Naaman 
the  Syrian,  Cornelius  the  Roman,  the  Queen  of 
Sheba,  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  all  find  their  place 
among  the  children  of  the  light.  “And  there 
shall  be  one  fold,  and  one  shepherd.”  The 
Jews  were  disappointed  that  Jesus  would  not 
turn  king  and  rule  the  Romans.  He  did  a 
greater  thing  in  getting  an  epistle  written  to  the 
Romans.  To  call  down  fire  is  easy.  To  save  is 
task.  Hammer  and  trowel  are  mightier  than 
the  sword.  Herod  hoped  to  see  some  miracle. 
He  saw  how  a  good  man  could  die,  and  conquer 
fate.  The  very  apostles  could  dream  no  higher 
than  a  Palestinian  kingdom,  a  pocket  empire 
for  a  handful  of  Jews.  Jesus  taught  and  lived 
after  such  fashion  that  no  one  on  the  planet 
finally  escapes  him.  “He  reigns  where’er  the 
sun  doth  his  successive  journeys  run.”  His 
house  is  builded  on  a  rock. 

It  is  rather  strange  the  original  impression  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  one  rarely  remem¬ 
bered.  “He  spake  as  one  having  authority.” 
The  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  was  author- 


108 


SENT  FORTH 


itative.  That  so  very  many  people  have  good 
great  words  for  what  Jesus  said,  and  will  not 
worship  him  as  the  Son  of  God,  is  either  an 
idiosyncrasy  or  the  sign  of  a  hard  heart.  Men 
ran  to  him  or  from  him,  as  they  faced  him  in 
the  long  ago.  There  was  only  one  Judas  in 
twelve,  and  he  could  hang  himself  easier  than 
to  come  back.  It  was  bitter  weeping  that 
Peter  did.  It  was  doubting  Thomas  who  came 
to  cry,  “My  Lord  and  my  God.”  “Never  man 
spake  like  this  man.”  The  Son  of  God  was  one 
without  a  brother.  Talking  with  him,  men 
faced  their  Judge,  their  King.  So  we  under¬ 
stand  certain  phenomenal  matters  on  record. 
“And  no  man  was  able  to  answer  him  a  word, 
neither  durst  any  man  from  that  day  forth  ask 
him  any  more  questions.”  “But  he  passing 
through  the  midst  of  them  went  his  way.” 
“Thou  couldest  have  no  power  at  all  against  me, 
except  it  were  given  thee  from  above.”  Jesus 
was  significantly  the  Master.  His  word  is  law. 

Just  where  the  teaching  of  Jesus  ran,  and  its 
editing  began,  we  do  not  always  know.  We  look 
at  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  through  the  eyes  of 
his  reporters.  The  mightiest  single  literary  force 
among  men  did  His  only  recorded  writing  on  the 
ground.  What  we  have  in  the  New  Testament, 
precisely,  is  not  what  Jesus  said,  but  what  some 
half  dozen  good  people  say  he  said.  The 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  109 


Nazarene  was  strangely  careless  about  his 
memorials.  Possibly  he  was  strangely  careful. 
It  may  be  that  poor  humans  lose  by  being  so 
mightily  thoughtful  about  themselves.  Did 
they  let  their  friends  go  gunning  for  their 
little  high  places  among  their  kind,  they  might 
find  them  sooner,  and  keep  them  longer. 
The  record  is,  the  Rabbi  of  Israel  left  his 
fame  to  the  mercies  of  the  dust  and  the 
treacherous  memories  of  men.  When  we  con¬ 
sider  the  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  we  may 
stray  ere  aware  into  the  pedagogy  of  the 
reporter.  The  unutterable  thing  is  that  the 
Teacher  of  Nazareth  was  entirely  content  with 
the  risk.  His  pedagogy  was  perspicuous, 
transparent,  obvious.  It  would  flame  in  any 
lantern.  He  was  so  sure,  did  he  give  it  time,  the 
old  earth  would  be  kind  to  him.  And  kind 
beyond  all  measure  it  has  been. 

“The  head  that  once  was  crowned  with  thorns, 

Is  crowned  with  glory  now.” 

The  critics  of  Bible  criticism  have  not  always 
been  friendly  to  their  Lord.  He  has  entered 
their  house,  to  be  woimded,  again  and  again. 
Were  Jesus  as  nervous  as  his  followers,  betimes, 
he  could  neither  teach,  nor  toil,  nor  rule,  nor 
save  the  world.  Is  he  veritably  the  Son  of  God, 
Christian  polemics  are  invincible.  Apologetics 


110 


SENT  FORTH 


and  apologies  are  two  things.  When  we  learn 
the  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  is  safe  in  any 
hands,  we  shall  know  the  quiet  of  the  skies. 
If  the  geocentric  system  of  the  universe,  a 
creative  week,  a  universal  flood  are  not  longer 
considered  vital  to  the  Christian  faith,  there 
may  be  things  yet  other  to  keep  them  company. 
It  is  little  to  the  credit  of  good  men  in  any  age 
to  be  recorded  as  densely,  stubbornly,  opposed 
to  what  turns  out  to  be  the  truth.  It  is  not  the 
magic  of  the  Bible  that  is  important  but  the 
magic  of  the  truth.  It  is  the  Bible  itself  that  is 
committed  to  the  saying,  “We  can  do  nothing 
against  the  truth  but  for  the  truth.”  One  who 
is  himself  the  truth  may  be  trusted  with  its 
campaign. 

That  the  teaching  of  Jesus  should  be  meas¬ 
urably  misunderstood  is  inevitable.  That  it 
comes  to  us  second-hand  is  only  a  beginning. 
As  always  happily  happens,  its  reporters  differ 
among  themselves  and  its  very  first  appearance 
is  a  complexity.  The  last  thing  the  masters  of 
human  learning  ever  do  is  to  agree.  This  copy 
of  the  printer  comes  through  differences  of  race 
and  training.  It  comes  over  long  years.  It 
filters  through  varying  languages.  It  is  forever 
at  the  mercy  of  its  versions.  The  prejudices  of 
self-interest  deflect  it  early  and  late.  The 
varieties  of  Christian  thought  and  creed  and 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  111 


practice  are  exactly  to  be  expected.  The  truth 
is  the  only  thing  more  nearly  immortal  than 
mistakes.  That  the  Nazar ene  did  not  provide 
against  them  is  a  fair  sign  they  are  not  fatal. 
The  gospel  is  no  flowering  under  glass,  tender, 
exotic,  but  a  hardy  weatherwise  child  of  the 
open  air,  and  native  to  the  storm.  It  does  not 
die  of  its  misreadings. 

All  this  is  so  because  the  pedagogy  of  the 
Nazarene  was  intended  to  be  understood.  Its 
vogue  is  its  dynamic.  It  thrives  that  it  is 
transparent.  It  blooms  of  the  limelight.  It  is 
cradled  at  high  noon.  So  the  miracles.  They 
were  called  signs  and  wonders.  They  did  not 
live  for  themselves.  They  illumined.  Unlike 
the  modern  variety  quite  too  often,  they  did 
not  need  explaining  and  a  wondrous  patience. 
That  men  might  know,  the  lame,  the  paralyzed, 
the  very  dead  arose  and  walked.  They  did  not 
questioningly  feel  a  little  better.  So  the  Christ 
persistency  and  emphasis.  Jesus  literally  wasted 
words.  Day  and  night,  to  few  and  many, 
accepted  and  disbelieved,  over  wise  and  foolish, 
indifferent  and  contentious,  he  flung  broadcast 
the  golden  seed  of  harvest.  The  birds  of  the  air, 
the  thorns,  the  tares,  the  rust,  took  toll,  but 
never  more  than  toll.  With  the  early  and  the 
latter  rain,  the  thirty,  sixty,  and  hundred¬ 
fold  held  mighty  tales  of  the  sower  who  went 


112 


SENT  FORTH 


forth  to  sow.  So  also  the  wealth  of  illustration. 
Doubtless  the  separate  teachings  of  Jesus, 
stated  didactically,  might  be  held  in  less  than  a 
dozen  Bible  pages.  Preachers  and  pedagogues 
are  wary  of  repetition.  Jesus  taught  his  lessons 
over  and  over,  and  repreached  his  sermons 
without  economy  or  dread.  Preachers  and 
pedagogues  relatively  illustrate  rarely.  It  is 
forced  upon  them  that  they  really  know  so 
little,  and  feel  so  feebly  the  force  of  what  they 
do  know.  Jesus  had  at  his  command  a  universe 
of  his  own,  and  was  a  perfect  medium  for 
ready  transmission  of  its  lessons  to  any  il¬ 
lumining  end.  Had  he  not  been  limited  by 
human  incapacity  to  appreciate,  the  New 
Testament  would  be  a  volume  to  which  men 
would  say  their  prayers.  That  it  is  so  far  a 
fetish  as  it  is,  may  be  a  warning. 

That  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  all  the  time  this 
side  the  Day  of  Judgment,  was  left  to  guide  us 
unto  all  truth,  is  significant.  It  could  only  so  be 
borne.  What  sort  of  sermon  Jesus  would 
preach  to  angels  may  not  be  imagined.  As  an 
illustrator  the  Rabbi  of  Israel  has  never  been 
equaled.  That  his  sayings  have  such  a  clientage 
is  in  a  measure  interpreted  here.  The  human 
race  is  at  best  a  kindergarten.  It  was  a  wise 
man  that  grappled  for  it  with  pictures  and 
stories.  He  was  hungry  to  be  understood.  So 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  US 


also  the  wondrous  white  life.  How  very  much 
human  wisdom  is  hidden  in  its  casing  of  clay! 
The  teachings  of  Jesus  shone  through  such  pearl 
and  diamond  beauty  as  men  could  never  invent 
nor  obtain.  No  discount  that  he  was  incon¬ 
sistent;  no  disappointment  that  his  vision  was 
short,  or  his  hand  feeble,  or  his  soul  stupid.  The 
things  he  said,  he  was.  The  silent  sermon  was 
the  one  men  not  rarely  heard.  When  cynical 
Roman  Pilate,  after  search,  could  find  no 
fault,  we  are  suspicious  none  other  might.  And 
Pilate  cared  only  for  the  lantern.  The  finding 
of  the  ages  is  of  the  light. 

Very  strangely  the  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene 
was  cosmopolitan.  That  it  dominates  the  world 
to-day  is  both  proof  and  emphasis.  It  has  kept 
up  with  the  times  like  food,  and  sleep,  and  sun 
fight,  and  love.  One  may  speak  with  signs 
under  any  sky.  So  Jesus  will  draw  a  smile 
from  any  sort  of  man.  Yet  Jesus  was  a  Jew: 
never  more  than  one  of  a  hundred  other  men. 
Perhaps  a  hundred  miles  from  the  manger 
where  he  was  born  was  the  widest  extent  of  his 
travels.  A  carpenter  going  with  the  job  does 
not  cross  oceans.  As  to  culture,  the  average 
Hebrew  boy  was  his  equal.  Like  other  boys,  he 
asked  questions  to  learn.  He  was  fatherless  in 
much  of  the  plastic  years.  He  never  married. 
He  never  grew  old.  He  was  of  Galilee,  the 


114 


SENT  FORTH 


provincial  corner  of  his  fatherland.  He  was 
humbly  poor,  living  close  to  the  level  of  hand- 
to-mouth.  His  own  mother  went  out  of  the 
family  when  he  died.  Yet  the  sayings  of  this 
Prophet  of  the  byway  have  gone  down  the 
highways  of  the  world  like  the  triumph  of  a 
king.  It  is  of  the  wonders  of  the  world. 

His  scale  of  concept  does  not  suffer  when  the 
world  is  all  out  of  doors.  The  modern  universe 
is  confessedly  immeasurable:  the  sides  of  the 
house  are  all  out.  Two  suns  lately  discovered 
are  said  to  be  seventy-five  times  the  size  of  our 
quite  infantile  luminary.  And  our  now  dis¬ 
counted  sun  is  seven  hundred  and  fifty  times 
the  mass  of  his  whole  solar  system.  Yet  Jesus 
Christ  was  never  so  little  discounted  as  to-day. 
It  has  never  been  forgotten  that  Wesley  said, 
“The  world  is  my  parish.”  Yet  Jesus  said 
eighteen  centuries  ago,  “The  field  is  the  world.” 
Probably  his  world  was  the  world  of  the 
Ptolemaic  concept,  geocentric,  its  outer  reach 
what  was  in  sight,  but  he  took  it  all  in  mind, 
past,  present,  future,  end.  We  enlarge  his 
world.  We  cannot  enlarge  his  grasp  of  the 
world.  There  is  nothing  this  side  of  God  he 
bows  to.  The  neighbors  said  he  made  himself 
equal  to  God  and  sent  him  out  of  the  world 
because  of  it.  And  it  looks  suspiciously  as  if  this 
cosmopolitan  outlookwas  thetruthof  theEternal. 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  115 


There  was  never  a  pedagogy  so  venturesome. 
Only  the  straightest  truth  saves  the  Galilsean 
from  being  adjudged  insane,  fanatic,  liar,  or 
plain  fool,  by  every  standard  of  thinking  men. 
He  tells  the  truth  so  many  times,  unques¬ 
tionably,  it  looks  doubtful  if  He  ever  lies.  He 
says  so  much  that  works  out  well  that  it  is  a 
strain  to  class  him  insane  or  fanatic.  His  wis¬ 
dom  is  so  respectable  that  one  brands  his  own 
sanity  to  call  him  fool.  The  roster  of  his  wild 
sayings  reads  like  an  asylum  or  the  throne  of 
God.  “I  and  my  Father  are  one.”  “Lo,  I  am 
wTith  you  alway.”  “I  am  the  resurrection  and 
the  life.  He  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he 
were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live:  and  whosoever 
liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die.” 
“Which  of  vou  convinceth  me  of  sin?”  “The 
Son  of  man  hath  powder  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins.”  )  “All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 
and  in  earth.” 

The  world  is  so  familiar  with  these  sayings  it 
forgets  their  impudence,  impossibleness,  de¬ 
ceptiveness,  devilish  wickedness  are  they  not  so. 
There  is  no  such  choice  laid  upon  man  under 
the  sun  as  when  he  is  asked  to  believe  or  reject 
Jesus  Christ.  His  brain  must  whirl  or  worship. 
It  is  no  wonder  plain  faith  is  made  the  secret  of 
all  religion.  It  is  no  wonder  such  a  Christ  will 
have  of  every  man  all  or  nothing.  He  acts 


116 


SENT  FORTH 


precisely  as  if  an  ideal  God  were  at  his  desk 
and  on  his  job.  The  risk  he  runs  has  nothing 
like  it  under  the  sun.  The  pedagogy  of  the 
Nazarene  is  radical  beyond  all  compare  or 
measure. 

The  pedagogy  of  the  Nazarene  was  in  much 
amazing.  “They  were  astonished  at  his  doc¬ 
trine.”  In  this  one  thing  his  ministers  may  not 
emulate  him.  One  goes  a  long  way  may  he 
meet  with  God.  He  spoke  in  parables:  their 
longevity  is  their  defense.  His  pedagogy  was 
profound.  Its  want  of  pretense  deceived  many: 
he  was  too  simple  to  be  great.  That  a  rich  man 
could  hardly  enter  the  kingdom  of  God,  that 
any  man  must  be  born  again,  that  he  did  not 
ceremonially  wash  before  eating,  that  he 
talked  at  length  with  a  woman,  that  he  would 
raise  the  dead  were  great  surprises.  The  words 
of  Jesus  by  the  record  astounded  the  onlookers 
more  than  did  his  deeds.  We  have  so  familiar¬ 
ized  ourselves  with  the  bewildering  that  we 
forget  the  adventure.  It  was  a  commanding 
element  in  the  hearing  given  the  “teacher  come 
from  God.” 

Of  course  the  supernatural  dynamic  deliber¬ 
ately  used  by  Jesus  with  his  words  could  not  fail 
of  a  large  result.  The  miracles  were  not  an  end 
in  themselves.  They  were  propaganda  pro¬ 
fessedly;  not  harvest  but  tools.  “That  ye  may 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  117 


know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins,  (Then  saith  he  to  the  sick  of 
the  palsy,)  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  into 
thine  house.”  “We  know  thou  art  a  teacher 
come  from  God,  for  no  man  can  do  these 
miracles  that  thou  doest  except  God  be  with 
him.”  It  is  not  unlikely  that  a  more  utter 
devotion  to  the  Christ  message  may  bring  back 
the  miracle  some  great  day  coming.  No  one 
less  than  Jesus  said,  “Greater  works  than  these 
shall  ye  do;  because  I  go  unto  my  Father.” 

To  the  mind  of  Jesus  his  pedagogy  was 
exhaustive.  He  felt  he  had  the  last  word.  He 
did  not  give  away  what  his  short  time  allowed, 
but  made  his  years  hold  out  till  his  teaching 
was  completed.  Jesus  died  on  time.  He  had 
things  yet  to  say,  and  men  were  poor  for  need  of 
them,  but  to  sav  them  was  to  waste  them.  Thev 
could  not  be  borne.  Later  these  slow  scholars 
might  be  guided  into  nothing  less  than  all 
truth.  It  is  significant  that  in  the  very  shadow 
of  the  cross  Jesus  should  say  his  teaching  was 
of  his  business  under  the  sun.  There  is  a 
cultural  Calvary.  “To  this  end  was  I  born,  and 
for  this  cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I 
should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.”  The 
atoning  values  of  the  literal  cross,  mighty 
beyond  words,  are  but  a  primer  to  the  ever- 
abiding  cross  of  the  Eternal.  The  sufficient 


118 


SENT  FORTH 


cross,  the  real  cross,  is  forever  in  the  heart  of 
God.  The  things  that  happen  down  the  ages 
are  its  gospel.  By  Jesus  Christ  came  the 
truth.  He  said,  “I  am  the  truth.”  He  was  full 
of  truth.  His  disciples  were  to  know  the  truth. 
We  do  not  with  regret  consider  that  the  lesson 
of  Jesus  was  rudely  broken  off  by  certain 
blinded  Jews,  and  we  grope  weakly  in  the  good 
way  where  we  might  have  run  wild.  We  run 
wild.  The  truth  has  made  us  free.  The  last 
w^ord  Jesus  might  wisely  say  was  said.  The 
lesson  was  done.  The  chapter  needed  no 
appendix  nor  supplement.  The  word  of  Jesus 
that  he  had  finished  his  work  is  the  end  of  the 
argument. 

In  the  light  of  this  emphasis  we  may  under¬ 
stand  the  not  infrequent  injunctions  of  Jesus 
to  secrecy  as  to  certain  matters.  The  day  of 
final  judgment  is  hidden  in  the  heart  of  the 
Father  in  heaven.  Transfiguration  is  held  in 
escrow  till  the  Son  of  man  be  risen  from  the 
dead.  The  disciples  for  a  time  were  not  even 
to  say  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ.  The  leper 
must  tell  no  man,  but  go  at  once  to  the  priest. 
The  insane  man  must  say  nothing  but  at  home 
and  to  his  friends.  The  mastery  of  the  Great 
Teacher  was  upon  his  message,  and  his  world 
was  to  have  it  after  his  own  fashion.  The  com¬ 
ing  Comforter,  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  his  own 


PEDAGOGY  OF  THE  NAZARENE  119 


coming.  He  was  not  leaving  his  beloved 
comfortless.  The  lesson  was  to  go  right  on. 
The  posthumous  gospel  was  of  the  pedagogy  of 
the  Nazarene.  The  school  of  Christ  is  no  ill- 
endowed  institution  of  restricted  curriculum, 
uncertain  future,  and  doubtful,  disappointing 
prestige.  It  is  the  one  authentic  University 
of  the  Universe. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


What  we  have  in  the  New  Testament,  precisely, 
is  not  what  Jesus  said,  but  what  some  half  dozen 
good  people  say  he  said.  The  Nazarene  was  queerly 
careless  about  his  memorials.  Possibly  he  was 
queerly  careful. 

The  Rabbi  of  Israel  left  his  fame  to  the  mercies  of 
the  dust  and  the  treacherous  memories  of  men.  He 
was  so  sure  that,  give  it  time,  the  old  earth  would  be 
kind  to  him. 

The  last  thing  the  masters  of  human  learning  ever 
do  is  to  agree. 

The  truth  is  the  one  thing  more  nearly  immortal 
than  mistakes. 

The  gospel  is  no  flowering  under  glass,  tender, 
exotic,  but  a  hardy  weatherwise  child  of  the  open 
air,  and  native  to  the  storm. 

To  call  down  fire  is  easy.  To  save  is  a  task.  Ham¬ 
mer  and  trowel  outcut  the  sword. 

The  Kindergarten  gets  its  kingdom  in  the  utterly 
natural  proclivities  of  the  child.  He  thinks  he  plays 
and  learns.  So  the  gospel  pleases  the  big  children 
of  the  earth  and  they  climb  the  skies. 


120 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE 

No  man  gets  on  without  thrills.  As  a  bird  is 
built  for  the  sky,  so  men  are  fashioned  for 
fascinations.  They  die  of  the  commonplace. 
After  some  sort  the  millions  of  the  race  all  march 
to  music.  In  the  penitentiary  hard  labor  is  a 
benediction:  prisoners  go  wild  for  things  to  do: 
final  resort,  in  penalty,  is  to  the  solitary.  Out 
of  the  penitentiary  illusioned  and  disillusioned 
multitudes  cry  the  blessedness  of  work.  The 
boy  hunts  up  adventure.  Men  seek  wealth, 
build  empires,  go  to  war.  One  affair  is  named  as 
“woman’s  whole  existence.”  We  cannot  get 
on  without  thrills. 

A  thrill  is  a  window  into  one’s  soul.  It  is 
more:  it  is  his  measure:  the  size  of  him  is  in  his 
frown  or  smile.  Weight,  and  urge,  and  destiny, 
all  stand  naked  in  his  dreams.  His  longings  are 
the  man.  Dying  with  all  his  music  in  him,  he 
is  still  a  musician.  The  artist  plays  with  colors 
from  the  cradle.  Columbus  could  not  be  small : 
he  had  worlds  in  his  eyes.  Napoleon  was 
inevitably  restless.  The  earth  had  things 

121 


122 


SENT  FORTH 


undone.  He  died  on  Saint  Helena  less  of  cancer 
than  the  cage. 

A  great  unrest,  and  the  painter  threw  his 
dream  upon  the  canvas  to  trouble  or  delight 
the  earth.  Fourteen  long  years  of  toil,  but  the 
witching  eyes  of  Rachel  were  upon  him,  and 
they  were  as  few  days.  Roosevelt  writes  his 
Winning  of  the  West,  and  we  know  his  soul  is 
hot  with  the  march  of  empire.  A  daughter  of 
the  famous  Beecher  family  gets  heartbreak 
over  it,  and  Uncle  Tom  s  Cabin  falls  about  the 
ears  of  slavery,  to  the  speeding  of  its  undoing. 
Thrills  are  the  soul  of  deeds  forever. 

Among  all  books  the  world  is  agreed  there  is 
A  Book.  The  Bible  is  a  page  of  the  auto¬ 
biography  of  God.  The  Bible  is  a  schedule  of 
the  universe.  To  human  history  the  Bible  is 
4 ‘The  House  of  the  Interpreter.”  The  Magna 
Charta  of  all  religion  is  the  Bible.  Do  we  take 
its  word,  the  Bible  is  the  doorway  to  immor¬ 
tality.  To  lose  the  Bible  is  to  beggar  the  world. 
It  is  surely  an  upper  sky  this  parish  of  the  Bible. 
And  in  this  rare  air  we  mutter  of  thrills  of  the 
Bible.  The  breeze  of  “The  Book”  has  blown 
upon  us. 

In  another  hour  one  might  wisely  consider 
The  Thrill  of  the  Bible.  There  is  a  marvelous 
unity  in  this  uncompanioned  book.  It  had  been 
hardly  more  manifest  if  stricken  out  at  a  blow. 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  123 


As  with  a  man  its  body  has  one  soul.  As  with 
the  day  it  sees  one  sun.  It  has  never  seemed 
strange  to  call  it  a  book  of  God;  the  book  of 
God.  It  whispers,  rumbles,  moans,  and  sings, 
of  God.  Its  very  commonplace  holds  the  hem 
of  his  garment;  the  dust  of  its  chronicles  is  the 
passing  of  his  feet. 

Whenever  and  by  whomsoever  written,  the 
sea  level  of  the  Pentateuch  is  forever  the 
concept  of  God.  It  was  not  accident  that  the 
first  Genesis  use  of  its  documents  should  be  one 
that  mentions  God  more  times  than  it  has 
verses.  “In  the  beginning  God.”  As  a  lover 
with  his  own,  it  screams  the  only  name. 
The  book  of  Job,  of  like  air  with  the  Pentateuch, 
is  also  a  gospel  of  God.  That  striking  volume, 
Ecclesiastes,  takes  God  and  his  commandments 
as  “conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.”  The 
Psalms  are  songs  to  God.  The  Prophets,  Major 
and  Minor,  are  Prophets  of  God.  “God  who  at 
sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in 
time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets, 
hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  His 
Son.”  All  human  history  is  a  desk  of  the 
Eternal.  Ye  “search  the  scriptures;  for  in 
them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life,  and  they 
are  they  that  testify  of  me.”  To  the  Nazar ene 
all  Scripture  was  speech  of  God.  One  uses 
neither  rhetoric  nor  faith  to  say  the  one  thrill 


124 


SENT  FORTH 


of  the  Bible  is  its  vision  of  God:  plain  truth 
answers.  The  world  vogue  of  the  Bible  has  no 
secret  like  the  vast  conviction  that  it  is  a  word 
of  God.  God  has  a  way  of  getting  Bibles 
written,  and  one  more  is  small  venture. 

With  every  emphasis  on  the  Bible  as  a  unit, 
however,  it  can  never  be  overlooked  that  it  is 
also  a  diversity,  a  combining,  a  compilation. 
The  Bible  is  both  a  book  and  a  library.  Forty 
streams  or  more  ran  into  its  sea.  Somewhere 
up  among  the  hills  a  spring  broke  loose  in  the 
life  of  a  man,  and  he  must  tell  his  tale.  Out 
among  the  tides  it  was  found  there  were  tales. 
There  had  been  more  springs  than  one.  There 
is  not  only  a  thrill  of  the  Bible,  but  as  truly 
there  are  thrills  of  the  Bible.  In  the  mind  of 
each  writer,  or  editor,  and  behind  each  output, 
was  a  master  mood  that  by  and  by  determined 
the  deed.  As  we  have  seen,  the  Bible  in  the 
blaze  of  its  thrill  has  neither  master  nor  mate. 
It  will  be  found  incomparable  in  the  light  of  its 
thrills.  A  clue  to  the  various  authorships  has 
worth  and  charm,  as  surely  as  the  key  to  their 
wedded  handiwork.  The  Book  will  shine  in  its 
books. 

The  value  of  this  suggestion  we  feel  easily,  for, 
as  is  often  noted,  in  many  cases  the  key  is  in 
the  door.  Not  a  few  of  the  Bible  writers  say 
in  so  many  words  the  things  that  were  at  their 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  125 


heart.  We  begin  where  we  neither  study  nor 
infer.  We  get  first  into  rooms  a  blind  man 
might  enter.  It  will  encourage  us  when  by  and 
by  we  find  the  key  is  lost. 

The  latest  considerable  book  of  the  Bible  is 
the  Gospel  of  John.  To  modern  thinking  it  is 
preeminently  the  soul  of  the  Christian  faith. 
Old  age,  wisdom,  and  holiness  have  small  room 
for  little  but  the  inevitable.  It  is  the  young  and 
foolish  and  unripened  who  see  the  great  in 
the  incidental.  The  utterly  respectful  estimate 
the  earth  has  put  upon  the  Gospel  of  John  has 
had  the  best  of  reasons.  The  mightiest  are  the 
ones  the  gospel  itself  writes  down.  As  none 
others,  they  interpret  Christendom. 

“And  many  other  signs  truly  did  Jesus  in  the 
presence  of  his  disciples,  which  are  not  written 
in  this  book;  but  these  are  written,  that  ye 
might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God;  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life 
through  his  name.”  “And  there  are  also  many 
other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the  which,  if 
they  should  be  written  every  one,  I  suppose  that 
even  the  world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books 
that  should  be  written.” 

We  understand,  of  course,  the  rights  of  rhet¬ 
oric.  The  world  could  hold  the  books,  though 
even  of  such  lives.  The  insistent  fact  is  simply 
that  John  has  no  brain  room  left,  even  if  it  is  so. 


126 


SENT  FORTH 


Everything  he  can  think  of  is  here.  His  heart 
keeps  silent  before  God.  The  world  is  full  of 
cradles,  but  to  the  latest  mother  there  is  but 
one.  Through  smiles  and  tears  we  swear  that 
it  is  even  so.  “In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.” 
There  is  such  a  thing  under  the  sun  as  losing 
patience  with  the  truth.  Of  course  the  Lovers’ 
Lanes  of  the  planet  are  never  lonely,  but  when 
one  man  and  one  woman  come  to  know  the 
neighbors  are  all  dead,  we  get  ready  for  the 
funeral.  The  family  has  a  hard  time  getting  on 
as  it  is.  When  the  children  of  men  are  more 
certain  their  Bible  is  a  very  human  book  they 
will  love  it  better.  The  heart  of  John,  the 
Beloved  of  his  Lord,  could  bear  no  more.  To 
quiet  the  bounding  pulses  even  of  his  eldest  age 
he  must  write,  and  we  get  his  Gospel. 

The  John  of  Revelation  is  an  amanuensis.  He 
writes  what  he  is  told  to  write.  He  takes 
dictation.  His  thrill  is  the  line  of  duty.  “The 
Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  which  God  gave  unto 
him,  to  shew  unto  his  servants  things  which 
must  shortly  come  to  pass;  and  he  sent  and 
signified  it  by  his  angel  unto  his  Servant  John: 
who  bare  record  of  the  word  of  God,  and  of  the 
testimony  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  all  things  that 
he  saw.”  When  we  remember  the  puzzle  box 
the  book  of  Revelation  has  been,  this  claim  of 
John  to  be  simply  a  reporter  means  things. 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  127 


God’s  world  has  been  a  puzzle  box.  Why 
might  not  God’s  Book  be,  just  so,  a  puzzle  box? 
The  puzzle  box  is  a  matter  of  size  and  eyes.  We 
shall  see  better  later.  The  book  of  Revelation 
is  a  book  of  revelation.  It  was  not  built  for  a 
museum.  It  is  a  school.  The  face  of  Moses 
could  not  be  looked  upon  that  he  had  companied 
with  God.  That  talking  with  God  we  do  not 
hear  well,  always,  is  not  at  all  a  wonder.  We 
shall  learn  to  listen  by  and  by.  “And  when  I 
saw  him,  I  fell  at  his  feet  as  dead.  And  he  laid 
his  right  hand  upon  me,  saying  unto  me, 
Fear  not.” 

The  Gentile  Luke,  like  John  the  apostle,  also 
leaves  his  key  in  the  door.  He  tells  why  he 
writes.  “Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in 
hand  to  set  forth  in  order  a  declaration  of  those 
things  which  are  most  surely  believed  among  us, 
even  as  they  delivered  them  unto  us,  which  from 
the  beginning  were  eye  witnesses,  and  ministers 
of  the  word;  it  seemed  good  to  me  also,  having 
had  perfect  understanding  of  all  things  from  the 
very  first,  to  write  unto  thee  in  order,  most 
excellent  Theophilus,  that  thou  mightest  know 
the  certainty  of  those  things,  wherein  thou  hast 
been  instructed.”  In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
he  professedly  carries  ahead  the  former  treatise 
to  his  latest  considerable  recollection.  One  only 
needs  to  take  the  beloved  physician  at  his  word, 


128 


SENT  FORTH 


to  know  what  masters  him.  He  wears  his  heart 
on  his  sleeve.  The  thing  on  his  soul  is  the 
credibility  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  the  theme 
of  all  he  has  to  say. 

The  apostle  Peter  said  of  Paul  that  he  wrote 
some  things  hard  to  understand.  It  was  likely 
a  matter  of  size.  Paul  never  said  it  of  himself. 
To  his  own  mind  Paul  was  everything  other 
than  nebulous,  speculative,  or  mystical.  One 
can  usually  find  early  exactly  what  he  wants  to 
say.  “A  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  to  be  an 
apostle,  separated  unto  the  gospel  of  God,” 
all  roads  lead  one  way.  His  gospel  of  God 
fills  the  sky.  That  the  faith  of  the  Roman 
church  is  spoken  of  throughout  the  whole 
world,  he  thanks  his  God,  through  Jesus  Christ. 
In  Corinth  he  knows  nothing,  “save  Jesus 
Christ,  and  him  crucified :  the  power  of  God,  and 
the  wisdom  of  God.”  With  the  Galatians  he 
marvels  that  they  are  so  soon  removed  from  the 
grace  of  God  “unto  another  gospel.”  As  to 
Colossse  he  is  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the 
will  of  God.  He  knows  Philippi  for  its  “fellow¬ 
ship  in  the  gospel,”  “For  God  is  my  record.” 
From  the  day  of  the  Damascus  road,  writing, 
speaking,  living,  suffering,  he  knows  no  mastery 
but  the  gospel  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

It  is  largely  supposed  that  in  Mark  one  finds 
the  mind  of  Peter,  and  that  Matthew  builds  his 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  129 


message  round  it  likewise.  It  is  then  all  the  more 
satisfying  that  we  do  not  guess  the  trend  of  his 
thought.  4 ‘The  beginning  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God.”  So  it  is  written. 
We  know  that  to  Mark  the  voice  of  God  was 
the  soul  of  life. 

Matthew  is  plain  historian.  He  has  no 
Gospel  beyond  his  facts.  His  world  is  a  world  of 
skeptics.  He  will  put  the  hardest-headed,  the 
most  callous-hearted,  entirely  desperate  un¬ 
believer,  up  against  quantities,  that  if  he  cannot 
overthrow  them  will  grind  him  to  powder.  The 
divine  Jesus  of  Mark  is  the  historic  Jesus  of 
Matthew.  As  Mark  is  a  Gospel  of  the  Son  of 
God,  Matthew  is  a  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
If  future  people  come  to  think  so  marvelous  a 
character  is  a  myth,  a  fictional  hero,  he  will  find 
him  standing  riveted,  cemented,  built  in,  with 
his  niche  of  the  book  of  generations.  He  is 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  David,  the  Son  of 
Abraham.  “Fourteen  generations  from  Abra¬ 
ham,  fourteen  generations  from  David,  fourteen 
generations  from  Babylon,”  and  Jesus  who  was 
called  Christ  was  born. 

No  foundling  Jesus  is  to  burden  his  religion. 
The  record  shows  that  as  to  the  world,  gladly, 
proudly,  Joseph  and  Mary  are  father  and 
mother  to  a  first-born  child  named  Jesus. 
Having  so  begun,  Matthew  has  now  some 


130 


SENT  FORTH 


surprising  things  to  tell.  He  must  say  that  an 
unsuspected  daughter  of  Israel  is  an  object  of 
shame,  that  her  fiance,  an  honorable  man,  runs 
risk  of  disgrace,  that  angels  and  dreams  so 
move  upon  him  that  he  takes  the  supposedly 
ruined  girl  to  his  heart  and  home,  and  that 
the  whole  stupefying  transaction  is  a  fulfillment 
of  sacred  prophecy,  and  the  abiding  will  of 
God.  Straightforwardly,  he  puts  it  all  down. 
“Now  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  was  on  this 
wise.”  The  visit  of  the  Wise  Men,  the  flight 
into  Egypt,  the  murderous  pogrom  of  Herod, 
the  return  to  Nazareth,  the  ministry  of  John  the 
Baptist,  the  dove  and  the  voice  from  heaven,  the 
irruption  of  miracles,  the  resurrection,  the 
ascension,  a  thousand  unbelievable  things,  are 
likewise  to  be  believed  with  Matthew.  What¬ 
ever  we  conclude,  as  to  Matthew,  they  hap¬ 
pened.  His  thrill  was  the  magic  of  the  truth. 

As  to  other  various  and  separate  writings  of 
the  New  Testament,  they' speak  for  themselves 
in  every  case  as  to  their  purpose  and  master 
mood  and  destination.  The  elect  lady,  and 
Gaius,  and  Philemon,  Titus,  and  Timothy,  get 
letters  of  their  own,  though  shared  with  the 
neighbors.  Jude,  John  in  the  first  epistle, 
Peter,  James,  and  the  author  of  Hebrews,  write 
generally  and  to  large  sections.  The  doubt  as 
to  who  may  have  written  Hebrews  is  still  the 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  131 


discussion  of  the  scholars.  There  was  likely 
the  wisest  of  reasons  why  the  key  should  not  be 
handy.  Whether  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  are  eight  or  nine,  we  know  not  one  of 
them  wrote  to  be  writing.  A  deep,  controlling 
spell  was  upon  them  all.  No  one  doubts  that 
they  were  like  other  holy  men  of  old,  “moved  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.”  The  humanness  of  them 
all  speaks  all  the  more  loudly.  To  be  laborers 
with  God,  that  is  the  opportunity  and  treasure 
of  the  race. 

With  every  one  of  the  Minor  Prophets  the 
thrill  was  in  his  message.  It  was  a  word  of  the 
Lord,  a  vision,  a  burden,  something  that  came 
to  him  as  from  God.  He  was  not  his  own. 
He  was  bought  with  a  price.  To  Hosea  and 
Jonah  there  was  terror  in  it.  Hosea  must 
smother  his  ideals  for  the  good  of  his  people. 
Jonah  must  company  with  the  grave.  It  is 
likely  he  actually  died.  It  is  of  the  day’s  work 
with  prophets  to  take  their  lives  in  their  hands. 
All  worlds  are  home  with  him  who  speaks  for 
God. 

How  far  any  prophet  is  the  author  of  what 
bears  his  name  is  a  matter  to  be  studied.  The 
man  is  commonly  lost  in  the  voice.  Daniel 
speaks  as  the  writer  of  his  book,  and  yet  it  may 
be  truly  said  that  the  thrill  of  Daniel  is  Daniel. 
His  experiences  are  eloquence  as  certainly  as  his 


132 


SENT  FORTH 


words.  It  is  thought  by  many  that  the  whole 
book  is  about  Daniel,  rather  than  by  him,  as  it 
is  with  the  books  of  Job  and  Jonah.  Ezekiel 
was  in  much  like  Moses,  Ezra,  Matthew,  and 
Luke — plain  historian;  but  in  his  latest  chapters 
he  sees  visions,  and  is  confessedly  apocalyptic, 
telling  as  he  has  been  told.  Jeremiah,  the  man 
of  many  toils  and  persecutions,  is  constantly 
upheld  by  his  thought  that  he  speaks  for  God. 
As  with  no  other  writer,  only  the  word  of  the 
Lord  runs.  That  there  are  two  or  more  authors 
who  write  Isaiah  need  hardly  be  longer  ques¬ 
tioned,  but  whether  it  is  history,  prophecy,  or 
plain  preaching  there  is  no  higher  nor  deeper 
sense  of  God  anywhere  in  the  entire  Bible.  Men 
are  tools  in  startling  fashion.  “Hear,  heavens, 
and  give  ear,  O  earth;  for  the  Lord  hath 
spoken.” 

How  much  Solomon,  the  reputed  wisest  of 
men,  may  have  actually  written,  no  man  knows. 
As  all  good  stories  during  a  generation  were 
better  for  their  being  traced  to  Lincoln,  so  words 
of  wisdom  for  centuries  suggested  Solomon. 
It  is  sufficient  always  to  remember  that  death¬ 
less  philosophy  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes. 
“Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter: 
Fear  God,  and  keep  his  commandments:  for 
this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man.” 

The  Psalms  are,  of  course,  a  book  of  songs. 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  133 


Used  in  the  Temple  service,  or  current  among 
the  people,  their  intrinsic  beauty  and  worth 
gave  them  their  place.  Each  sings  its  own 
message. 

Did  Moses  write  the  book  of  Job?  Is  it, 
with  Genesis,  a  monument  of  those  silent  desert 
years  when  the  chosen  people  went  aside  from 
the  neighborhood  of  men  to  walk  with  God? 
Or  is  it  a  relic  of  that  longer,  later  exile  in 
Babylon?  So  great  a  book  would  call  for  a 
great  setting,  but  we  have  only  the  book  itself 
on  which  to  build  our  concept.  That  tells  us 
the  ways  of  God  with  men,  and  that  they  may 
be  utterly  trusted.  Whoever  the  author  was, 
and  whatever  he  wrote,  his  thrill  was  the  wonder 
of  life  and  the  worthiness  of  God. 

Probably  Ezra  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the 
scribes  who  wrote  for  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
historical  books,  at  least,  passed  through  his 
editing.  Though  Jeremiah  and  others  possibly 
unknown  were  their  writers,  the  records  say 
the  law  and  the  prophets  were  touched  with  no 
uncertain  hand  by  Ezra.  The  men  who  lay 
foundations  will  one  day  find  their  crown  with 
those  who  fly  the  towers. 

The  human  Moses  is  the  victim  of  his  fame. 
It  was  of  such  as  he  that,  apart  from  their 
morality,  the  Greeks  fashioned  their  gods.  So 
deeply  is  he  written  into  the  annals  of  men  that 


134 


SENT  FORTH 


the  man  is  buried.  The  prophet,  the  legislator, 
the  literary  master,  the  leader  of  armies,  the 
statesman,  the  patriarch,  the  saint,  have  made 
him  a  cult  rather  than  a  matter  of  red  blood. 
That  he  appears  on  earth  away  from  his  heaven, 
in  company  again  with  the  transfigured  Son  of 
God,  we  more  nearly  say  our  prayers  than  we 
think.  We  are  sorely  tempted  to  leave  him  with 
the  veil  upon  his  face. 

Rut  there  is  a  human  Moses.  We  see  him, 
“learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians.” 
We  see  him  when  come  to  years,  “choosing 
rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of 
God.”  We  see  him  killing  his  man  and  hiding 
him  in  the  sand.  We  see  him  weakened  and 
worried  with  burdens  beyond  his  strength.  We 
see  him  laid  to  rest  where  “no  man  knoweth  of 
his  sepulcher  unto  this  day.”  Under  what  a 
spell  did  such  an  one  work,  in  writing  words 
that  will  not  die?  There  is  but  one  answer. 
He  had  walked  and  talked  with  God  till  the 
divine  will  was  life.  For  God  he  fought  with 
the  Egyptians,  with  his  own  people,  with  the 
elders  and  princes,  with  his  best  friends.  There 
was  nothing  in  the  world  for  him  but  God.  So 
being  told  that  he  is  to  write,  we  have  volume 
after  volume  that,  even  edited,  molds  the 
world  to-day.  After  some  interpretation  the 
words  of  Moses  were  Sinai  to  the  Son  of  God, 


THE  THRILLS  OF  THE  BIBLE  135 


and  their  shadow  is  rest.  The  thrill  of  Moses 
was  his  sense  of  God. 

Do  we  follow  the  later  critics  and  consider 
Moses  as  hero  and  soul  of  his  economy  rather 
than  literally  author  or  editor  of  its  propaganda, 
we  are  the  more  amazed  with  his  proportions. 
Priests,  prophets,  editors,  redactors,  long  cen¬ 
turies  after  he  is  dead,  can  find  nothing  so  worth 
doing  as  to  hallow  their  work  with  his  name. 
That  he  could  so  thrill  his  age  must  have  been 
surely  the  magic  of  the  thrill  that  in  its  toils  so 
long  held  him.  The  vision  of  God  is  immor¬ 
tality.  The  vision  of  God  is  wings.  The  vision 
of  God  is  eternal  life. 

That  men  have  had  their  part,  as  men,  in  the 
book  of  God  is  the  wisdom  of  God.  They  have 
their  part  in  the  world  of  God.  But  for  men  the 
fields  run  wild.  But  for  men  culture  is  a  farce. 
Men  are  the  solvent  and  interpretation  of  the 
earth.  We  know  of  nothing  that  looks  immortal 
but  man.  Only  of  men  is  it  stated  that  they  are 
made  in  the  image  of  God.  Only  for  men  has 
there  been  speech  from  Heaven.  That  the  Bible 
has  the  finger  print  of  men  upon  it  we  can  read 
it.  It  is  of  like  passion  with  ourselves.  The 
Son  of  God  was  also  the  Son  of  man.  The 
Book  of  God  as  wisely  is  the  Book  of  Man. 
With  man  at  its  editing,  the  Bible  reveals  God 
as  he  could  be  seen  in  no  other  way.  That  we 


136 


SENT  FORTH 


feel  the  thrills  of  the  Bible  it  is  our  own. 
belongs.  It  is  of  the  family. 

“Bread  of  our  souls  whereon  we  feed, 
True  manna  from  on  high, 

Our  guide  and  chart  wherein  we  read 
Of  realms  beyond  the  sky.” 


BLUE  MONDAY 


There  is  such  a  thing  under  the  sun  as  losing 
patience  with  the  truth. 

The  mighty  future  is  at  rest  if  we  are  at  rest.  No 
age  is  on  the  way  to  save  us  from  the  age  we  have. 

God’s  world  has  been  a  puzzle  box.  Why  might 
not  God’s  Word  turn  out  a  puzzle  box?  It  is  a  matter 
of  size. 

That  talking  with  God  we  do  not  always  hear  well 
is  little  wonder. 

Men  followed  Jesus  for  loaves  and  fishes  to  find 
rebuke.  Philanthropy  is  the  religion  of  multitudes 
to  the  decay  of  piety  and  worship. 

The  heart  of  a  cyclone  is  said  to  be  so  still  as  to  be  a 
terror. 

The  smoothest  seas  lie  often  long  leagues  from 
shore. 

We  need  no  sign-post  to  the  sun. 

No  cripple  could  be  a  priest.  Cripples  did  not 
write  the  Bible. 

To  a  variety  of  minds  the  Bible  is  a  glorified 
Sahara  whose  sands  of  equal  value  glisten  as  the 
gold.  It  is  not  at  all  disconcerting  to  such  an  one 
that  in  a  diamond  world  diamonds  are  dust. 

The  Proverbs  are  a  collection.  They  are  the  ages 
turned  reporter. 

The  Book  of  God  comes  through  in  thrills  as  in  the 
spectrum  light  breaks  up  in  colors. 


137 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  REGNANT  CHRIST 

Were  one  to  say  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the 
riddle  of  his  religion,  there  would  be  few  to 
disagree.  The  conventional  Christian  experi¬ 
ence,  the  problem  of  sin,  the  mazes  of  Divine 
Providence,  the  dream  of  immortality,  are  all 
simple  to  the  problem  of  the  Christ.  This  is  not 
strange.  It  is  mostly  a  matter  of  size.  The 
largest  concept  entertainable  of  the  human 
mind  is  God.  Jesus  Christ  is  an  interpretation 
of  God.  That  little  people  should  find  it  col¬ 
lapsing  is  quite  to  be  expected.  Pantheism  is 
hardly  more  than  a  jaded  brain.  It  is  a  vacation 
to  say  that  God  is  good,  and  good  is  God. 
Idolatry  is  simply  a  differentiating  of  the 
difficulty.  One  can  more  easily  take  on  gods, 
one  at  a  time.  Necessity,  Fate,  Irresistible 
Causation  are  but  creeds  of  the  helpless.  Men 
wilt  and  drift  at  vision  of  the  issues.  So  in  the 
magnitude  of  the  matter  even  Bible  teaching 
overwhelms.  Revelation  must  itself  be  re¬ 
vealed.  It  is  more  than  a  witticism  that 

138 


THE  REGNANT  CHRIST 


139 


language  conceals  thought.  The  haunting 
notion  that  God  could  make  things  irresistibly 
plain  if  he  would  is  a  demand  that  he  make  us 
something  other  than  we  are.  He  might  truly 
make  us  something  different.  It  is  not  at  all 
probable  the  different  body  would  be  better.  It 
is  quite  likely  that  God  does  his  best  in  the 
building  of  every  man.  That  we  reach  the 
highest  notch  we  may  is  but  our  day’s  work. 

Jesus  himself  understood  the  “Messiah,”  to 
be  a  problem.  “What  think  ye  of  Christ?” 
“If  David  then  call  him  Lord,  how  is  he  his 
son?”  Paul  said,  “Great  is  the  mystery  of  god¬ 
liness:  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.”  So,  frequent 
biblical  answers  to  the  riddle  tell  us  there  is  a 
riddle. 

Jesus  may  well  be  called  the  “Cultural 
Christ.”  A  great  business  of  life  is  to  learn. 
“I  must  preach  the  kingdom  of  God  to  other 
cities  also:  for  therefore  am  I  sent.”  “In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word.”  Jesus  may  also  well 
be  called  the  “Curative  Christ.”  A  great 
business  of  life  is  reconstruction.  We  cannot 
live  simply  to  learn.  We  must  also  find  help, 
salvation,  correction.  Life  is  both  a  school  and 
a  hospital.  “God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the 
world  to  condemn  the  world;  but  that  the  world 
through  him  might  be  saved.”  Equally  true 
is  yet  another  thing.  Life  is  not  only  a  school. 


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a  hospital;  it  is  also  a  kingdom,  a  tribunal, 
a  court.  Jesus  is  the  “Regnant  Christ.”  “We 
shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ.”  Jesus  is  “KING  OF  KINGS  AND 
LORD  OF  LORDS.”  We  see  here  the  old-time 
terminology  of  Jesus  as  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
King.  It  is  entirely  worthy  as  expressing  the 
threefold  aspect  of  life.  It  is  misleading  to 
consider  life  simply  as  to  one  or  any  of  its 
phases.  Only  with  all  have  we  truly  any.  A 
life  purely  cultural  is  cold  and  formal.  It  is  well 
to  think,  but  man  is  more  than  a  thinker.  The 
basal  error  of  Prussianism  was  just  here.  Head 
and  hands  outgrew  the  heart.  The  world  went 
to  war  with  a  monstrosity.  In  the  name  of 
culture  it  did  without  a  tremor  things  that 
shocked  the  earth.  Jesus  is  a  teacher,  and  yet 
other. 

A  life  saturated  only  with  the  curative  process 
of  religion  is  out  of  plumb,  crippled,  morbid,  and 
unhealthy.  A  hospital  is  a  good  place  in  which 
to  stay.  It  is  not  a  good  place  wherein  to  live. 
It  is  possible  that  Christianity  has  weakened  its 
hold  on  men  by  overemphasis  on  sin  and 
salvation.  Jesus  Christ  is  more  than  a  Saviour. 
Sin  is  not  the  whole  of  life’s  shortcoming. 
There  is  also  irresponsibility,  ignorance,  chaos, 
anarchy.  Men  must  obey  and  serve  as  surely  as 
learn,  and  be  saved.  The  normal  man  is  the 


THE  REGNANT  CHRIST 


141 


scholar,  citizen,  saint,  and  toiler,  tempered  into 
one. 

In  our  latest  thought  the  King  is  at  a  discount. 
Democracy  holds  the  stage.  It  is  well  to  re¬ 
member,  however,  that  the  thing,  and  not  the 
name,  is  the  vital  matter.  Kings  may  go.  What 
they  rightly  stand  for,  law,  order,  strength, 
obedience,  duty,  may  abide  forever.  A  family 
with  love  and  no  sense  of  obligation,  collapses. 
A  business  with  brains  and  small  sense  of  honor 
goes  bankrupt.  A  world  of  more  than  one  man 
must  get  farther  than  doing  right  in  its  own 
eyes.  Science  is  more  correlation  than  knowl¬ 
edge.  Art  is  fitness  beyond  shape  and  color.  It 
is  things  in  order  that  make  them  available. 
This  is  the  secret  of  the  latest  century.  Mul¬ 
tiplication  is  rapid  addition.  One  and  one  make 
more  than  two.  One  chases  a  thousand  and  two 
put  ten  thousand  to  flight.  A  small  police  force 
rules  a  great  city.  The  first  thousand  dollars 
comes  harder  than  the  latest  million.  It  is  this 
dynamic  worth  we  have  in  mind  when  speaking 
of  the  Regnant  Christ.  Names  mean  little. 
The  things  they  stand  for  shape  the  universe. 

A  striking  putting  of  this  overturning  con¬ 
ception  is  found  in  Paul’s  letter  to  the  Romans. 
“To  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose,  and 
revived,  that  he  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead 
and  living.”  Except  for  this  purpose  also,  there 


142 


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would  have  been  no  Christ.  The  Christ  came 
to  heal,  to  serve,  to  teach,  to  atone,  but  to  rule, 
as  well.  The  Lordship  of  Jesus  is  of  the  phi¬ 
losophy  of  the  incarnation.  He  is  master  of 
destinies. 

Who  can  doubt  the  earth  has  great  need  of  the 
notion  of  authority?  One  of  the  Czars  is 
reported  to  have  said,  “My  son  and  I  are  the 
only  men  in  Russia  who  do  not  steal.”  A 
business  man  once  said  to  the  writer,  “I  would 
not  graft,  so  put  up  with  less  money.”  The 
prices  in  the  markets  are  always  larger  or  un¬ 
certain  because  of  speculation.  The  insistent 
demand  for  more  government  control  in  every 
nation  on  the  earth  is  the  mightiest  sermon  on 
honesty  the  world  ever  heard.  Possibly  a 
planetary  army  discipline  was  a  school  of  the 
Almighty  for  better  things.  War  teaches  men 
to  mind.  The  matter  of  the  family  is  con¬ 
fessedly  a  thing  of  common  concern.  So  vagrant 
are  the  passions  of  women  and  men  that  the  call 
of  right  is  often  their  only  salvation.  The 
excesses  and  horrors  of  war  are  a  terrible  cor¬ 
rection.  The  sentimental  droolings  of  the 
magazine,  novel,  theater,  and  free  lance  gener¬ 
ally  are  shamed  and  mastered  by  the  terrible 
logic  of  elemental  distress  and  despair.  In 
religion  we  are  about  at  the  lowest  ebb  as  to 
free  will  in  man.  We  may  expect  now  a  return 


THE  REGNANT  CHRIST 


143 


to  the  sweep  of  God’s  sovereignty.  It  seems  so 
hard  for  the  human  race  to  be  at  home  with 
more  than  one  great  concept  at  a  time.  Whether 
hard  or  easy,  the  demand  of  the  hour  is  a  re¬ 
surrection  of  conscience.  So  we  think  wisely  of 
Jesus  as  Lord,  the  Regnant  Christ. 

A  peculiar  emphasis  of  the  Scriptures  in  this 
connection  is  that  laid  upon  the  passing  im¬ 
portance  of  death.  In  ordinary  human  affairs 
physical  decease  is  a  terminal  point.  It  is  a 
distress  and  a  disturbance,  an  enemy,  a  some¬ 
what  best  to  be  ended.  In  view  of  the  Lordship 
of  Jesus,  it  is  a  transition.  “None  of  us  liveth 
to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself.  For 
whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord;  whether 
we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord:  whether  we  live, 
therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord’s.  For  to  this 
end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose,  and  revived, 
that  he  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and 
living.”  To  be  alive  or  dead  is  important 
enough,  but  the  mastery  of  Jesus  is  over  both  of 
them. 

The  relations  of  men  and  their  neighbors  are 
of  large  weight,  but  the  controlling  concept  is  not 
the  neighbors  but  the  Christ.  No  man  living  to 
himself  and  no  man  dying  to  himself  has  the 
great  God  in  mind,  and  not  the  neighbors. 
Whether  we  live  or  die  we  are  in  account,  not 
with  the  neighbors,  but  with  the  Lord.  In 


144 


SENT  FORTH 


practical  outworking  piety  is  a  larger  affair  than 
philanthropy  or  service.  If  the  prayer  meeting 
were  the  greatest  gathering  of  the  week,  it 
would  be  entirely  normal.  To  love  one’s 
neighbors  comes  second  to  loving  God.  The 
serving,  teaching,  or  saving  Christ  is  atrophied 
when  there  is  no  Regnant  Christ. 

It  is  surely  and  abundantly  worth  while  that 
a  minister  should  know  where  his  strength  is  to 
be  put.  The  very  thing  our  modern  religion  is 
failing  at  should  be  our  glory.  The  sense  of  God 
and  his  regnancy  should  be  a  great  emphasis 
and  message  to  men.  We  are  teachers,  enter¬ 
tainers,  comforters,  general  managers,  more  than 
prophets.  We  should  see  that  men  do  not 
forget  the  Regnant  Christ. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


The  haunting  notion  that  God  could  make  things 
irresistibly  plain  if  he  would  is  a  demand  that  he 
make  us  something  other  than  we  are.  It  is  not  at 
all  probable  that  the  different  body  would  be  better. 
It  is  quite  likely  that  God  does  his  best  in  the 
building  of  any  man. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  Christendom  has 
weakened  its  hold  on  men  by  over  emphasis  on  sin 
and  salvation.  A  hospital  is  a  good  place  to  stay. 
It  is  not  a  good  place  in  which  to  live. 

Science  is  correlation  more  than  knowing  things. 
Art  is  fitness  beyond  any  shape  and  color.  It  is 
things  in  order  that  make  them  of  use.  One  and 
one  make  more  than  two. 

The  call  of  the  hour  is  a  resurrection  of  conscience. 

In  practical  outworking,  piety  outranks  both 
philanthropy  and  service.  When  the  prayer  meeting 
is  the  commanding  meeting  of  the  week  it  is  entirely 
normal. 

Man  is  more  than  a  thinker.  The  basal  error  of 
Prussianism  was  just  here.  Its  head  outgrew  its 
heart.  The  world  went  to  war  with  a  monstrosity. 

A  world  of  more  than  one  man  must  get  farther 
than  doing  right  in  its  own  eyes. 


145 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  CURATIVE  CHRIST 

It  is  a  universal  failing  to  talk  shop.  And  we 
talk  shop  because  we  think  shop.  The  sick  man 
chatters  of  his  illness,  the  jail  bird  of  his  crimes, 
the  merchant  of  his  business.  The  machinist, 
mason,  carpenter,  discusses  his  trade.  The 
artist  is  full  of  the  statuary,  building,  painting, 
song.  The  farmer  talks  of  crops  and  markets, 
the  soldier  of  his  battles,  the  sailor  of  the  seven 
seas. 

In  all  this  there  may  be  nothing  vicious  or 
reprehensible.  The  trouble  is  the  world  is  our 
shop,  and  we  are  sure  to  get  things  out  of 
proportion.  The  minister  usually  carries  some 
sort  of  certificate  that  he  is  a  bachelor,  master, 
or  doctor  in  arts.  Could  it  always  include  the 
art  of  seeing  things  whole,  the  master  art  of 
life,  it  would  multiply  its  value.  Correlation  is 
not  a  lost  art.  It  is  an  art  not  yet  acquired. 

In  the  House  of  the  Interpreter  was  a  flame  of 
mystery;  a  fire  that  would  not  go  out  though 
water  rained  upon  it.  When  the  pilgrim  found 

146 


THE  CURATIVE  CHRIST 


147 


one  hidden  behind  the  flame  pouring  in  oil, 
there  was  mystery  no  longer.  He  saw  it  as  it 
was. 

One  of  the  mighty  things  about  the  Bible  is  its 
solidarity.  It  bears  rarely  well  a  reading  wdiole. 
Its  ends  a  thousand  years  apart,  the  work  of 
forty  or  more  authors,  divided  into  sixty-six 
volumes,  fashioned  in  a  wide  variety  of  dialects 
and  languages,  and  out  of  an  absolute  medley  of 
conditions,  it  is  yet  over  all  the  earth  one  book. 
Had  the  Jews  and  early  Christians  read  their 
Bible  whole,  the  Christ  could  never  have  been 
rejected.  Could  Romanism  have  read  its  Bible 
whole,  there  would  have  been  no  occasion  for  the 
Reformation.  The  multiform  denominations 
would  merge  into  few,  or  none,  did  they  read 
their  Bible  whole.  Every  cult  taking  the  Bible 
as  authority,  would  lose  its  peril  did  it  learn  to 
read  its  Bible  whole.  Reading  the  Bible  whole 
will  one  day  startle  the  planet  into  a  following 
of  the  one  Lord,  one*  faith,  one  baptism. 

The  questionable  Calvinism  is  simply  the 
over  emphasis  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  as 
against  a  free  human  will.  The  truth  lies  in  the 
balance  of  both.  The  monk  and  the  nun  are 
only  a  strained  concept  of  individualism.  The 
truth  is  in  a  liberal  collectivism.  The  Inquisi¬ 
tion  was  a  holy  Christian  zeal  warped  out  of 
shape.  The  steady  betterment  of  the  earth  in  a 


148 


SENT  FORTH 


thousand  ways  grows  from  a  larger  action  and 
reaction  among  the  sections  it  will  forever 
maintain.  And  reading  the  Bible  whole,  with 
the  grace  of  God,  will  be  the  mighty  tool  to  the 
final  best  for  which  men  hope  and  pray. 

These  words  are  written  to  indicate  the  frame 
of  mind  in  which  one  must  consider  the  Curative 
Christ.  That  human  life  needs  relief,  that  it  is 
a  hospital,  we  must  sadly  admit.  There  is 
distress  and  sin  in  plenty.  But  human  life  is 
not  all  a  hospital.  It  is  not  mainly  a  hospital. 
It  is  not  even  largely  a  hospital.  To  think  of  the 
Curative  Christ  as  the  sun  over  half  the  horizon 
even,  is  to  think  out  of  all  borders.  If  it  were  so 
that  the  need  of  the  Curative  Christ  darkened  so 
much  of  human  life,  we  should  have  him  and  be 
glad  for  him.  It  was  a  great,  good  man  who 
said,  “My  God  shall  supply  all  your  need  from 
his  riches  in  glory  by  Christ  Jesus.”  And  we 
believe  in  that  Christ.  But  with  all  said,  who 
would  live  in  a  hospital?  One  stays  in  a  hospital. 
He  leaves  when  he  thinks  of  living.  Even  the 
Curative  Christ  cannot  make  a  hospital  a  home. 
When  the  cured  man  is  made  well  he  leaves  his 
bed  for  others.  A  widely  known  philanthropist 
of  the  Pacific  Coast  founded  an  Old  People’s 
Home,  and  endowed  it  for  long  generations.  She 
made  her  home  on  the  grounds.  But  she  lived 
in  her  own  house.  A  hospital  is  an  emergency. 


THE  CURATIVE  CHRIST 


149 


To  consider  the  whole  of  life  as  an  emergency,  or 
even  dominantly  an  emergency,  is  surely  not 
permanently  thinkable.  We  cannot  only  begin 
to  live  when  we  die.  Yet  good  and  great  men 
have  thought  within  themselves  that  they  must 
read  their  Bible  so.  Recent  and  authoritative 
statements  of  this  diagnosis  of  man’s  journey 
under  the  sun  read  as  follows:  “Christianity 
above  all  else  is  a  religion  of  redemption.”  “The 
church  is  a  society  of  redemption.”  “The 
redemptive  note  is  the  dominant  note  in  the 
life  and  work  of  Jesus.”  “May  we  not  say  of 
the  Bible  that  the  whole  of  it  was  written  to 
show  the  person  of  the  Redeemer,  and  to  say  the 
word,  'Redeemer’?”  “The  essential  unity  of  the 
Bible  is  in  its  gradual  unfolding  of  God’s  plan 
of  redemption  for  the  human  race.”  “The 
incarnation  in  order  to  redemption  has  the  same 
place  in  revealed  theology  that  the  creation  has 
in  natural  theology.  It  is  the  very  center  of  the 
system  about  which  our  lives  revolve.” 

The  worthy  names  that  might  be  quoted  as 
profoundly  moved  by  a  supposedly  redemptive 
unity  and  dominance  in  all  life  command  every 
respect.  Nevertheless  the  Bible  is  an  open  page. 
We  cannot  build  up  any  of  its  teachings  with  the 
debris  of  others.  Its  stated  truths  are  no 
farther  true  than  as  built  into  the  wall  with 
every  other  truth.  The  failures  and  confusion 


150 


SENT  FORTH 


of  Christian  history  are  traceable  more  to  a  for¬ 
getting  just  here  than  to  any  one  thing.  .  The 
brighter  day  at  dawning  everywhere  is  under  a 
sun  that  remembers  never  less  than  all  the 
truth. 

Just  because  they  loved  their  Lord  his 
disciples  would  call  down  fire.  That  their  love 
has  become  better  correlated,  religious  per¬ 
secution  is  at  an  end.  Some  truth  gives  room 
to  all  truth.  The  highest  prayer  of  good  men 
once  was  that  an  earthly  kingdom  might  be 
restored.  They  find  that  true  religion  flourishes 
under  any  sort  of  kingdom.  Good  men  once 
thought  more  loaves  and  fishes,  and  a  release 
from  disease  and  death,  were  of  primary  worth. 
They  see  to-day  the  hungry  at  the  soul  of  him 
may  have  a  feast,  and  a  man  may  live  though 
he  is  dead.  As  the  alphabet  loses  itself  to 
live  in  the  finished  volume,  and  the  cradle 
ripens  into  manhood,  so  truth  is  mighty  and 
prevails  as  coming  to  vision  of  all  in  sight.  Left 
to  our  eyes,  the  planet  is  a  plain.  Brought  to 
things  as  they  are,  it  is  a  globe  and  wdiirls  in  its 
appointed  orbit.  So  redemption,  culture,  mas¬ 
tery,  providing,  ethics,  service  are  all  true  in 
life  only  as  in  sight  of  each  other,  and  of  the 
unifying  will  of  the  great  God.  We  never  see 
life  really  except  as  we  see  it  whole. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  well-meant  confusion 


THE  CURATIVE  CHRIST 


151 


could  come  about  should  one  read  only  the 
redemptive  literature — those  portions  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  that  deal  with  this  side  of  the 
story.  “Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.”  “Thou  shalt 
call  his  name  JESUS:  for  he  shall  save  his 
people  from  their  sins.”  “God  sent  not  his  Son 
into  the  world  to  condemn  the  world;  but  that 
the  world  through  him  might  be  saved.” 
“Thou  .  .  .  hast  redeemed  us  to  God.”  “Thus 
saith  the  Lord,  your  redeemer,  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel.”  If  this  were  the  only  sort  of  literature 
the  Bible  held,  the  case  would  be  made  out.  But 
the  rigid  fact  is  that  the  Book  of  books  is 
crowded  with  other  sorts  also,  and  we  must  think 
of  them  as  well.  “All  things  were  made  by  him; 
and  without  him  was  not  anything  made  that 
was  made.”  Here  is  the  Creative  Christ.  “In 
him  was  life;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men.” 
Here  is  the  Cultural  Christ.  “I  must  preach  the 
kingdom  of  God  to  other  cities  also:  for  there¬ 
fore  am  I  sent.”  Here  is  the  Hortatory  Christ; 
Christ  the  Preacher.  “Tell  ye  the  daughter  of 
Zion,  Behold,  thy  King  cometh.”  Here  is  the 
Regnant  Christ.  “I  am  the  Bread  of  life.” 
Here  is  the  Sustaining  Christ,  the  Providential 
Christ.  “The  Word  was  with  God,  and  the 
Word  was  God.”  Here  is  the  deity  of  Christ. 
“The  Son  of  man.”  Here  is  the  human  Christ. 


152 


SENT  FORTH 


“I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  Life.”  “I 
am  the  door  of  the  sheep.”  “I  am  the  good 
shepherd.”  “I  am  the  resurrection.”  “He  will 
give  you  another  Comforter.”  As  this  riches  in 
glory  by  Christ  Jesus  breaks  upon  us,  like  the 
high  tides  of  the  sea,  we  understand  that  to  go 
alone  with  any  one  of  its  rarest  treasures,  the 
very  sweetest  and  most  precious,  is  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  truth.  “To  this  end  was  I  born,  and 
for  this  cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I 
should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.”  “Every 
one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice.” 
We  have  no  choice,  can  have  no  will,  but  to 
follow  the  Christ  we  find.  We  are  to  hold  the 
Curative  Christ  as  in  keeping  with  all  other 
aspects  of  his  mission. 

The  probable  fact  is  that  no  one  phase  of 
character  in  the  Christ  should  be  said  to  be 
dominant,  or  is  dominant,  in  this  world,  or  any 
other.  One  would  not  say  eyes,  ears,  or  hands 
were  dominant.  One  would  not  say  an  ideal 
father,  or  mother,  or  husband,  or  wife,  or 
sister,  or  brother,  in  a  family  was  dominant. 
If  dominant,  we  would  not  say  ideal.  One  would 
not  wish  deliberately  his  intellect,  emotions,  or 
will  should  dominate.  To  have  it  so  with 
either  is  trouble.  Their  strength  is  in  their 
correlation.  One  great  difference  between  men 
and  their  Maker  is  just  here.  No  one  of  us  but 


THE  CURATIVE  CHRIST 


153 


is  out  of  plumb,  warped,  gnarled,  or  dwarfed. 
God  is  infinitely  perfect.  And  Jesus  Christ  is 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 

It  is  not  every  discomfort  among  men  that  is 
subject  of  redemption.  The  infirmities  of  child¬ 
hood  are  often  unhappy  enough,  but  we  would 
not  consider  being  redeemed  from  them,  except 
as  time  and  culture  work  their  magic  alchemy. 
There  are  many  human  shortcomings.  We 
cannot  wade  through  all  forms  of  matter.  We 
cannot  fly.  We  cannot  read  thoughts.  Physical 
death  is  quite  a  normal  process.  We  do  not 
think  of  being  redeemed  from  such  deficiencies — 
at  least  while  under  the  sun.  Temptation 
distresses.  We  are  not  redeemed  from  trial. 
Jesus  was  tried.  Ignorance  is  an  uncomfort¬ 
able  affair,  gives  one  many  a  bad  half-hour. 
Mistakes  and  blunders  seem  to  be  indigenous. 
The  best  of  men  commit  them.  So  in  the  matter 
of  scriptural  redemption  we  go  no  farther  than 
is  written.  We  are  redeemed  from  our  sins. 
“He  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins.” 
This  means  their  guilt,  penalty,  defilement, 
enfeeblement,  distress,  and  committal,  as  in 
measure  each  stated  case  demands  or  makes 
possible.  We  are  quite  often  redeemed  from 
danger.  The  Lord  “redeemeth  thy  life  from 
destruction.”  He  “redeemed  them  from  the 
hand  of  the  enemv.”  In  some  measure  men  are 


154 


SENT  FORTH 


redeemed  from  temptation,  and  in  temptation. 
He  “will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that 
ye  are  able”  to  bear.  Men  are  often  redeemed 
from  sickness  and  pain.  Holiness  is  forever  on 
the  trail  toward  health.  The  one  point  to  be 
made  is  that  a  careful  study  of  the  Bible  will 
give  us  surely  a  vision  of  great  things  the 
Curative  Christ  will  do  for  men.  It  is  not 
needful  to  see  too  much.  It  is  confusion  to  be 
wise  above  that  which  is  written.  Just  what  the 
Bible  says  is  a  marvelous  plenty. 

A  final  word  of  great  consequence  is  that  the 
Curative  Christ  gains  by  every  other  aspect  of 
his  character.  That  the  redeeming  Christ  is  all 
powerful  is  a  strength  to  faith.  That  the 
Redeemer  of  men  is  all  wise  is  comfort.  Prosper¬ 
ity  is  sometimes  ominous.  That  the  Redeemer 
is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  is  very  worth  while. 
We  are  not  saved  because  of  favoritism,  or  any 
arbitrary  or  artificial  reason.  Only  when  it  is 
wonderfully,  absolutely  right,  do  our  sins 
vanish.  “That  he  might  be  just,  and  the 
justifier  of  him  which  believeth  in  Jesus.” 
That  our  Saviour  was  incarnate  he  understands; 
that  he  is  the  Son  of  God  he  cannot  fail.  That 
he  is  the  only  Christ;  that  there  is  no  other  name 
under  heaven  or  among  men  whereby  we  must 
be  saved,  we  run  to  him  at  once.  All  other 
Saviours  will  be  experiments  and  failures.  It 


THE  CURATIVE  CHRIST 


155 


is  not  at  all  in  the  interest  of  the  redeeming 
Christ  to  forget  there  are  a  dozen  other  Christs. 
The  greater  he  is  every  way,  the  greater  he  is  in 
any  way. 

The  earth  is  neither  a  shop,  a  hospital,  a 
courtroom,  nor  a  school.  It  is  a  shop,  a  hospitah 
a  courtroom,  and  a  school.  Human  life  is 
neither  evolution  nor  revolution.  It  is  evolution 
and  revolution.  “Known  unto  God  are  all  his 
works  from  the  beginning  of  the  world.”  A 
redeeming  Christ  redeems  to  the  end  of  the 
needful  and  possible.  That  our  world  might  be 
vastly  worse  is  good  cheer.  The  Curative 
Christ  is  at  once  our  study,  our  hope,  and  our 
joy. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


One  of  the  many  mighty  things  about  the  Bible  is 
its  solidarity.  It  bears  rarely  well  a  reading  whole. 

To  consider  the  whole  of  life  an  emergency  is 
surely  not  permanently  thinkable.  We  cannot 
begin  to  live  only  when  we  die. 

We  may  not  build  up  one  Bible  teaching  v/ith  the 
debris  of  others.  That  only  is  true  that  shapes  into 
the  wall  with  every  other  truth. 

Holiness  is  forever  on  the  trail  toward  health. 

The  earth  is  neither  shop,  hospital,  court  nor 
school.  It  is  shop,  hospital,  court,  and  school.  The 
difference  is  planetary. 

The  minister  usually  carries  some  sort  of  cer¬ 
tificate  that  he  is  a  bachelor,  master,  or  doctor  in 
arts.  Did  it  always  include  the  art  of  seeing  things 
whole,  the  master  art  of  life,  it  would  multiply  its 
value. 

Reading  the  Bible  whole  with  the  grace  of  God  is 
the  high  road  to  the  final  best. 

Some  truth  giving  way  to  all  truth  is  the  sunrise  of 
the  earth. 


156 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  SON  OF  THE  CARPENTER 

The  great  God  is  a  being  of  law  and  order. 
Chaos  and  confusion  are  forever  alien  to  him 
with  whom  we  have  to  do.  “Known  unto  God 
are  all  his  works  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world.” 

That  the  physical  universe  is  under  regulation 
is  so  obvious  as  to  be  commonplace.  Disorder 
would  be  ruin.  A  watch  and  a  grain  of  sand  are 
poor  neighbors.  Watches  do  not  run  with  sand. 
The  world  is  not  built  to  function  with  con¬ 
fusion. 

The  world  of  men  is  under  law.  God  “hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to 
dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath 
determined  the  times  before  appointed,  and 
the  bounds  of  their  habitation.”  Humanity  is 
a  child  of  purpose.  That  men  should  seek  and 
find  the  Lord  is  behind  all  their  goings.  What 
an  astounding  matter  is  the  differentiation  of 
the  sexes!  To  this  latest  day  it  knows  no  sure 
control  but  the  will  of  the  Almighty.  The 

157 


158 


SENT  FORTH 


solidarity  of  the  great  races  is  much  the  same. 
Living  often  side  by  side  with  infinite  possibil¬ 
ities  of  amalgamation,  they  persist.  The 
institution  of  the  family  and  the  dominance  of 
monogamy  in  the  face  of  utterly  violent 
temptation  must  have  acquaintance  with  Om¬ 
nipotence.  Speaking  largely,  polygamy,  as 
polyandry,  has  always  been  exceptional  in  the 
earth.  More  than  one  wife  is  rare  even  in 
Islam.  The  Christian  family  is  the  hope  and 
the  promise  of  a  white  life  in  the  centuries  to  be. 
The  institution  of  the  Sabbath  is  law  applied  to 
time.  Not  only  religion  but  perpetuity  and 
progress  call  for  system  in  the  use  of  time.  The 
Bible  is  another  of  God’s  thoughts  in  archi¬ 
tecture.  Its  fixed  record  is  court  of  appeal  to 
failing  memories  and  mental  frailties.  It  is 
the  anchor  of  all  modern  civilization.  The 
Jewish  people,  with  their  unique  and  perplexing 
mission  in  the  earth,  have  not  happened. 
Neither  did  the  Christian  Church  come  to 
pass.  They  are  both  of  the  standardizing  of 
the  Eternal.  They  spell  stability  to  the  human 
race  in  a  thousand  ways. 

From  the  foregoing  it  follows  readily  that 
Jesus  as  a  revealer  of  God  would  leave  behind 
him  the  print  of  his  hands.  It  may  even  be 
more  than  incidental  that  he  was  “The  Son  of 
the  Carpenter.”  With  all  we  may  say  of 


THE  SON  OF  THE  CARPENTER  159 


individual  freedom  the  regnancy  of  principle, 
the  dominance  of  motive  and  intent,  Christ¬ 
ianity  and  the  Christ  stand  for  human  life 
according  to  law.  Running  water  is  the  symbol 
of  the  free,  but  it  runs  neither  long  nor  far 
till  a  channel  hems  it  in,  and  it  runs  in  order. 
Restless  old  ocean  sleeps  in  its  bed.  Each  star 
takes  title  to  its  orbit.  So,  the  Christian  religion 
has  its  chart  of  immortality,  in  its  wedding  with 
system  and  regulation.  The  kindly,  revealing, 
atoning,  Jesus,  is  also  an  organizing  Jesus.  We 
cannot  follow  him  with  small  respect  for  the 
organic.  He  is  the  Son  of  the  Carpenter. 

Things  did  not  happen  at  the  cradle  of  the 
Christ.  They  were  the  “Fulfillment  of  the  oath 
and  covenant  spoken  of  by  the  holy  prophets 
since  the  world  began.”  Joseph  took  Mary  to 
wife,  Jesus  was  bom  in  Bethlehem,  the  flight  was 
made  to  Egypt,  the  dwelling  was  had  in  Naz¬ 
areth,  “that  it  might  be  fulfilled.”  Life  is  a 
garment  woven  of  a  piece  with  all  of  us.  It  was 
emphatically  so  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He 
was  subject  to  his  parents,  he  was  about  his 
Father’s  business  in  the  Temple,  he  was 
baptized  to  fulfill  all  righteousness.  His  one 
answer  in  temptation  was,  “It  is  written.” 
When  he  began  to  preach  in  Nazareth  he  at 
once  identified  his  message  with  the  Old- 
Testament  Scriptures:  “This  day  is  this  scrip- 


160 


SENT  FORTH 


ture  fulfilled  in  your  ears.”  “I  am  not  come 
to  destroy  but  to  fulfill.”  So  in  all  his  ministry 
to  the  end.  The  history,  ordinances,  prophecies, 
and  testimonies  of  all  the  holy  ages  are  sacred 
to  him. 

With  his  formal  work  begun,  he  gathered 
about  him  a  body  of  recognized  disciples.  He 
did  not  leave  his  message  in  air.  Men  were 
charged  to  follow.  Discipleship  is  taken  for 
granted,  and  its  official  ranking  often  forgotten. 
The  day  came  wThen  many  of  the  Lord’s  disciples 
went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him.  He 
was  so  moved  that  he  queried  of  those  nearest 
him,  “Will  ye  also  go  away?”  One  of  the  great 
duties  of  a  Christian  minister  will  be  to  forever 
insist  that,  if  men  will  follow  Jesus,  they  do  it 
openly.  The  frequent  distinction  made  between 
Christ  and  his  church,  his  recognized  fellow¬ 
ship,  is  quite  unchristian.  “He  that  denieth 
me  before  men  shall  be  denied  before  the 
angels  of  God.”  “He  that  believeth  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved;  but  he  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned.”  The  weaknesses  of  the 
church  are  of  the  cross  we  carry.  Jesus  bore 
the  vacillation,  blundering,  complaining,  sin¬ 
ning  of  his  followers.  The  great  God  bears 
forever  the  same  cross.  “The  servant  is  not 
greater  than  his  Lord.” 

By  and  by,  a  chosen  body  of  apostles 


THE  SON  OF  THE  CARPENTER  161 


emerged.  He  called  unto  him  his  disciples: 
and  of  them  he  chose  twelve,  whom  also  he 
named  apostles.  Of  the  same  nature  was  the 
sending  out  of  the  seventy.  They  went  two 
and  two.  Combination  is  added  to  individual 
consecration.  One  and  one  make  more  than  two. 

Doubtless  Christian  organism  has  been  over¬ 
rated  and  abused.  Doubtless  also  it  has  been 
depreciated.  Our  Lord  was  not  content  with 
individualism.  It  is  our  mission  as  ministers  to 
be  organizers,  and  so  perforce,  perpetuators. 
We  build  to  endure. 

Prayer  is  an  institution.  “Men  ought  always 
to  pray.”  “After  this  manner,  pray  ye.” 
“Where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made.”  The 
Lord’s  Supper  is  no  incident.  “This  do  in 
remembrance  of  me.”  Baptism  is  an  insti¬ 
tution.  “Baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.” 
The  Christian  experience  has  a  definite  character 
often  forgotten.  It  is  a  baptism  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Jesus  performs  it.  “He  shall  baptize 
you  with  the  Holy  Ghost.”  “He  hath  shed 
forth  this,  which  ye  now  see  and  hear.”  This 
was  the  significance  of  the  giving  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  through  the  laying  on  of  hands.  It 
emphasized  the  official  character.  The  Chris¬ 
tian  experience  forever  should  be  definitely 
recognized  and  conserved. 


162 


SENT  FORTH 


The  great  missions  of  the  organic  are  two; 
weight  of  impact  and  perpetuity.  The  world  has 
lately  learned  in  blood  and  tears  that  men  must 
stand  together  as  w^ell  as  stand.  Government, 
law,  order,  training,  system,  preparedness  will 

mean  more  for  a  thousand  years  to  come 

«/ 

because  of  these  long  days  of  ruin  and  alarm. 
Sin  is  divisive.  Holiness  is  constructive.  That 
Jesus  is  a  voice,  and  more,  spells  immortal¬ 
ity.  A  pile  of  brick  disintegrates.  A  pyramid 
abides. 

The  Christian  minister  and  man  alike  has  his 
concrete  task.  He  has  no  option  but  to  bring 
the  whole  world  into  a  visible  organized 
relation  to  his  gospel  by  as  much  as  in  him  lies. 
He  cannot  wait  while  the  world  comes  to  him; 
he  goes  to  the  world.  He  has  an  open  Bible  in 
his  hand.  It  is  a  word  of  God  among  other 
words.  It  is  the  word  of  God  as  being  the  will 
of  God.  He  brings  the  duty  and  the  privilege 
of  the  church,  the  sacraments,  the  ministry7,  the 
fellowship  of  the  faithful,  a  daily  life  ordered  by 
the  precepts  of  Jesus  the  Christ.  Being  a 
Christian  himself,  he  will  make  the  last  man 
Christian  if  he  can.  Even  if  made  to  appear 
narrow  and  illiberal,  he  carries  with  him  a 
gospel  of  organism  as  certainly  as  a  gospel  of 
life.  The  good  man,  the  Christian,  is  never  an 
anarchist.  Order  and  place,  a  local  habitation 


THE  SON  OF  THE  CARPENTER  163 


and  a  name,  points  of  the  compass,  are  forever 
of  the  day’s  work  with  him. 

But  now  the  hard  fact  is  that  the  world  will 
not  wait  till  he  comes.  Men  are  born,  and 
breathe,  and  live,  and  die,  while  he  is  on  the 
way.  The  masses  of  the  dead  and  gone  never 
knew  he  started.  His  Bible,  his  church,  his 
service,  his  hope,  might  never  have  been,  so 
far  as  the  vast  majority  of  men  are  concerned. 
What  has  the  Son  of  the  Carpenter  to  do  with 
the  unevangelized  world?  Is  Christianity  the 
philosophy  of  the  universe?  Is  it  planetary  or 
provincial? 

The  expected  answer  is  that  the  Christian 
religion  is  professedly,  unmistakably  planetary. 
It  was  never  or  anywhere  provincial.  All  men 
always  have  been  settling  the  issues  of  destiny. 
There  is  a  song  built  on  the  query,  “Are  you 
ready  for  the  Judgment  Day?”  It  is  a  pointless 
question.  No  man  lives  anywhere  or  for  any 
time  unready  for  the  Judgment  Day.  He  may 
not  be  ready  for  the  closer  company  wTith  God. 
He  is  forever  ready  for  his  account.  God 
never  left  himself  without  witness.  The  most 
degraded  heathen  is  without  excuse.  God  is  a 
Saviour  for  all  men  if  not  to  all  men.  “I  saw 
the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God.” 
“God  so  loved  the  world.”  Some  years  ago 
there  was  held  in  Chicago  a  Parliament  of 


164 


SENT  FORTH 


Religions.  After  a  street  definition  of  religion 
it  was  eminently  proper.  Naturalism,  Judaism, 
Confucianism,  Mohammedanism,  Christianity 
— to  the  mind  of  history  all  are  religions  and 
may  get  together  in  conventions.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  one  world  with  one  God  has  room  but 
for  one  religion.  It  is  the  work  of  the  Son  of  the 
Carpenter. 

Precisely  this  is  the  message  of  the  whole 
Bible.  The  Christian  religion  draws  a  map  of 
the  universe.  “Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech, 
and  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge/’ 
“Their  words  [are  gone  out]  to  the  end  of  the 
world.”  “Other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of 
this  fold.”  “Many  shall  come  from  the  east 
and  west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham, 
and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.”  The  unevangelized  are  accounted 
with  on  the  basis  of  the  Christian  evangel. 
“We  shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ.”  “Before  him  shall  be  gathered  all 
nations.”  There  is  no  annex  to  the  gospel. 
While  knowledge  and  opportunity  vary  among 
men,  the  same  vital  element  controls  every¬ 
where.  The  planet  is  elementally  religious.  No 
man  lives  anywhere  or  any  time  in  an  alien 
world.  It  is  forever  a  gospel  world. 

Further,  the  people  we  are,  as  well  as  the 
world  we  are  in,  tells  us  of  religion.  Some  one 


THE  SON  OF  THE  CARPENTER  165 


has  well  said  that  “The  human  race  is  incurably 
religious.”  Our  theology  that  men  are  born  in 
sin  and  bred  in  iniquity  does  not  displace  the 
fact  that  they  are  also  born  and  bred  knowing 
the  good.  Natural  religion  is  a  basal  teaching 
of  our  gospel  and  plainly  of  record  in  the  Bible- 
We  do  not  think  of  the  unevangelized  world  as 
absolutely  but  comparatively  unevangelized. 
They  are  children  of  our  Father,  brothers  of 
ours,  judged  by  the  common  gospel,  varying 
degrees  of  which  are  the  heritage  of  all  men. 
They  do  not  need  another  world,  or  more  light, 
or  even  our  light,  to  be  evangelized  in  any 
absolute  sense.  The  basis  for  missionary  work  is 
not  emergency  but  duty  and  privilege.  The 
tremendous  advances  of  evangelism  in  these 
latest  years  are  largely  due  to  the  broader 
scriptural  views  of  what  we  are  about,  and 
how  God  is  managing  his  affairs.  The  Son  of 
the  Carpenter  has  not  been  idle. 

Never  for  one  minute  has  the  great  God 
found  it  necessary  to  experiment  with  his 
world.  He  has  steadily  developed  great,  well- 
ordered  plans  in  a  strategy  commensurate  with 
himself.  That  his  thoughts  are  not  our  thoughts, 
nor  his  ways  our  ways  is  only  what  we  might 
expect.  They  take  account  of  ebb  as  well  as 
flow,  of  night  as  of  day.  That  Eden,  the  Flood, 
Judaism,  heathenism,  Christendom,  are  mon- 


166 


SENT  FORTH 


uments  of  failure  is  a  thousand  miles  from  the 
truth.  That  the  real  work  of  evangelism  begins 
only  when  Jesus  comes  again  is  delusion  and 
libel.  Evangelism  is  honoring  God  along  eve^*y 
step  of  the  way. 

No  man  will  largely  succeed  anywhere  or  at 
any  time  who  takes  a  provincial  viewT  of  God’s 
world  and  God’s  work.  That  work  has  been 
planetary  all  the  time  and  anywhere.  That  it 
has  not  been  universal,  a  work  in  other  worlds, 
no  man  can  prove.  It  is  at  least  planetary. 
The  Son  of  the  Carpenter  is  forever  at  his 
trade.  His  world  is  a  shop,  a  field,  a  task. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


Humanity  is  the  child  of  purpose.  “That  they 
should  seek  the  Lord.” 

The  institution  of  the  Sabbath  is  law  applied  to 
time.  System  in  hours  is  not  only  religion,  but 
perpetuity  and  progress. 

Running  water  is  the  symbol  of  the  free,  but  it 
runs  neither  long  nor  far  till  a  channel  hems  it  in, 
and  it  runs  in  order.  Restless  old  ocean  sleeps  in  its 
bed.  Each  star  takes  title  to  its  orbit. 

Life  is  a  garment  woven  without  seam  for  each  of 
us. 

The  weaknesses  of  the  church  are  of  the  cross  we 
carry. 

The  world  has  lately  learned  in  blood  and  tears 
that  men  must  stand  together  as  well  as  stand. 

Sin  is  divisive.  Holiness  is  constructive.  A  pile 
of  bricks  disintegrates.  A  pyramid  abides. 

The  planet  is  elementally  religious.  No  man  lives 
anywhere  or  any  time  in  an  alien  world. 


167 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  PILATE 

That  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  a  likable  one  has 
its  significance.  The  tale  of  the  tw^elve-year-old 
boy  leaves  us  sure  the  tenderest  age  is  friendly 
with  religion.  It  is  probable  the  prevalent 
despair  as  to  just  this  era  among  the  little  men 
is  quite  unnecessary.  They  are  not  exactly 
men,  to  be  sure.  It  is  their  business  to  be  boys. 
And  there  was  a  Jesus  boy. 

With  every  passing  age  the  earth  is  to  be 
more  and  more  a  world  of  scholars.  Jesus 
looks  well  among  the  wise.  One  great  Bible 
verse  is  better  known  and  liked  than  any  other, 
and  it  was  spoken  to  a  master  in  Israel. 

One  half  the  race  is  forever  blessed  in  being 
feminine.  It  did  not  happen  that  white-souled 
women  were  at  home  with  Jesus. 

There  is  something  queer  in  an  age  when  men 
are  not  led  of  the  Christ.  The  neighbors  did 
not  doubt  his  manliness  twenty  centuries  ago. 

It  is  a  world  of  beauty  and  delight  we  live  in. 
The  birds  of  the  air,  the  lilies  of  the  field,  the 
magic  of  sun  and  rain,  the  music  of  hymns,  the 
caress  of  the  winds,  the  lure  and  charm  of 

168 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  PILATE  169 


friendship  and  love  were  precious  to  the  Son 
of  the  Carpenter. 

That  ministers  should  be  likable  is  of  their 
curriculum.  There  is  no  special  piety  in  the 
disagreeable.  To  be  drawn  to  the  man  is  right 
of  way  to  his  message.  The  beauty  of  holiness 
has  the  best  of  authority.  Though  one  may 
follow  his  model  afar  off,  it  is  forever  well  to 
follow. 

There  is  a  higher  vision,  however,  than  the 
likable  Christ.  It  is  the  faultless  Christ.  Our 
likes  are  of  us.  We  are  never  exactly  certain 
about  them.  But  Jesus  was  ethically,  as  well 
as  aesthetically,  perfect.  He  is  the  absolute 
ideal.  Pilate  said,  “I  find  no  fault  in  this 
man.”  He  himself  said,  “Who  of  you  con- 
vinceth  me  of  sin?”  A  voice  from  the  skies 
declared,  “This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I 
I  am  well  pleased.”  He  was  faultless  in  his 
reputation  with  his  fellow  men,  faultless  before 
full  information,  faultless  with  a  perfect  con¬ 
science,  faultless  before  God.  “Tempted  in 
all  points,  yet  without  sin,”  is  the  word  of  Paul. 
He  was  faultless  after  trial.  He  was  better  than 
innocent.  He  was  virtuous.  In  every  thinkable 
fashion  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  faultless 
Christ.  Suspected  as  wicked,  it  is  nevertheless 
of  the  Christian  faith  to  find  Him  always  good. 
The  holiness  of  Christ  is  of  his  credentials. 


170 


SENT  FORTH 


It  is  significant  that  no  sooner  was  Jesus 
baptized,  officially  installed  at  his  work,  than 
the  temptation  intervened.  Full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  he  was  led  to  trial  of  the  devil.  There 
is  among  men  no  holiness  untested.  So  that 
Jesus  kept  his  first  estate  is  not  indifferent, 
incidental,  nor  a  stage  proceeding.  It  was  of 
his  day’s  work.  The  standpoint  of  the  evil  one 
was  unrelieved  wickedness.  It  often  happens 
that  the  ignorance  and  defective  reasoning  of 
men  lead  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  Christ, 
and  they  think  him  mistaken  and  wrong.  In 
the  wilderness  it  is  not  weakness,  but  vindictive 
and  utterly  subtle  wickedness  that  Jesus  faces, 
and  it  is  out  of  that  he  emerges  the  Faultless 
Christ.  “Son  of  God,  Saviour  of  the  world, 
have  a  care  for  your  comfort.  Draw  on  the 
universe  that  you  do  not  go  hungry.”  For  the 
mighty  to  waste  himself  on  the  little  is  the 
temptation.  “Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God.”  Bread  is  only  part  of 
the  equation.  When  the  call  of  the  hour  is  to 
be  planetary,  to  be  provincial  falls  into  sin. 
“Son  of  God,  compromise  and  conquer.  The 
kingdoms  of  the  world,  the  power  and  the  glory 
of  them  sanctified  to  your  use  are  yours  if  you 
will  worship  me.”  Anything  that  adulterates 
worship  is  sin.  Holiness  is  wholeness.  Men 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  PILATE 


171 


are  to  do  God’s  work  in  God’s  way  or  not  at 
all.  “Son  of  God,  display  your  power,  cast 
yourself  down,  that  angels  may  care  for  you” — 
the  sin  of  the  short  cut,  the  temptation  of  the 
spectacular.  God  has  small  use  for  the  theat¬ 
rical.  He  does  not  need  to  play  at  being  either 
great  or  good.  So  in  everything  the  wicked 
wish  of  the  evil  one  went  wrong,  and  Jesus  was 
the  Faultless  Christ. 

The  Pharisees  were  very  sure  that  Jesus  and 
his  disciples  were  frivolous,  and  kept  doubtful 
company.  “Why  do  ye  not  fast  and  make 
prayers  more  frequently?  Why  do  ye  eat  with 
publicans  and  sinners?”  In  their  mind,  the 
most  religious  soul  on  earth  did  not  have  enough 
religion.  Good  people  thought  the  best  man  the 
earth  ever  saw  was  bad.  But  was  it  ever  so? 
Do  not  the  sick  need  a  physician?  Is  not  the 
gospel  good  news?  Jesus  did  not  allow  for  one 
moment  that  he  had  in  anything  gone  wrong, 
or  even  mistakenly.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees 
were  finding  fault  with  the  faultless. 

Again,  the  best  of  their  day  were  entirely 
certain  this  new  teacher  was  a  Sabbath-breaker. 
“Why  do  they  on  the  sabbath  day  that  which 
is  not  lawful?”  Like  thousands  in  all  the  ages, 
they  verily  thought  within  themselves  that  par¬ 
ticularity  was  piety.  The  noticeable  thing  is 
that  Jesus  insisted  his  conduct  was  forever 


172 


SENT  FORTH 


correct  and  right.  David  ate  the  shew-bread. 
The  priests  in  the  Temple  do  manual  work  on 
the  Sabbath.  A  man  is  better  than  a  sheep. 
It  is  always  lawful  to  do  well  on  the  Sabbath 
day.  The  son  of  man  is  Lord  even  of  the 
Sabbath.  Jesus  is  still  the  Faultless  Christ. 
“This  fellow  casts  out  devils  by  the  prince  of 
devils.”  He  is  in  league  with  the  wickedest 
potency  in  all  the  universe.  “If  I  cast  out 
devils  by  the  prince  of  devils,  how  can  his 
kingdom  stand  and  by  whom  do  your  children 
cast  them  out?  If  I  cast  out  devils  by  the 
spirit  of  God,  then  are  you  quarreling  with 
God.”  When  Jesus  proceeds  to  designate 
these  people  as  a  generation  of  vipers,  we  know 
it  was  not  ignorance  or  mistake  but  wicked¬ 
ness  that  prompted  their  action.  They  knew 
themselves  at  fault  in  baiting  the  Faultless 
Christ. 

Sitting  down  to  dine  with  a  Pharisee,  he  does 
not  ceremonially  wash  before  eating.  The 
objective  is  not  as  to  cleanliness  but  godliness. 
Jesus  points  out  that  holiness  is  an  inside  affair, 
not  an  outside  matter.  It  is  the  inward  part 
that  needs  the  washing.  So  they  talk  that  they 
may  accuse.  The  fault  finder  can  always  find 
fault.  It  is  in  this  connection  that  Jesus  says 
the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  is  hypocrisy.  They 
knew  the  right  and  still  the  wrong  pursued.  Had 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  PILATE  173 


they  been  true  and  honest  they  would  not  have 
condemned  the  guiltless.  One  must  be  good  at 
heart  to  see  the  Faultless  Christ. 

The  ruler  of  the  synagogue  by  virtue  of  his 
office  would  be  solicitous  about  the  Sabbath  day, 
and  could  not  see  any  good  in  people  coming  for 
healing  on  that  day.  “If  you  will  lead  away  an 
ox  to  watering  on  the  Sabbath,  ought  not  a 
daughter  of  Abraham  eighteen  years  bound 
under  the  power  of  Satan  be  loosed  of  her 
bonds?”  “And  his  adversaries  were  ashamed.” 

There  are  few  more  striking  tales  in  history 
or  fiction  than  the  struggle  of  Pilate  as  to  the 
Faultless  Christ.  Convinced  that  the  evil 
lay  with  the  accusers,  Pilate  would  let  him  go 
free.  “I  find  no  fault  in  the  man.”  Hearing 
that  he  is  of  Galilee,  he  sends  him  to  Herod, 
who  has  jurisdiction  in  Galilee.  Getting  him 
back,  he  tells  the  chief  priests  he  finds  no  fault 
in  him,  nor  yet  does  Herod,  and  he  will  therefore 
chastise  him  and  let  him  go.  The  chief  priests 
storm  to  crucify  him.  “What  evil  hath  he 
done?”  says  Pilate.  His  wife  terrifies  him  with 
the  story  of  her  dream.  He  washes  his  hands  of 
the  matter.  He  puts  the  King  of  the  Jews  on 
the  cross.  To  the  bitter  end  he  quarrels  to  keep 
on  good  terms  with  his  conscience  and  his  Lord. 
The  Faultless  One  is  his  despair. 

Another  wondrous  story  is  the  attitude  of  the 


174 


SENT  FORTH 


crucified  thieves.  “If  thou  be  Christ,  save 
thyself  and  us/’  By  and  by  a  light  breaks  in  on 
one  of  them  and  he  declares,  “This  man  hath 
done  nothing  amiss.”  Pilate  at  the  extreme  of 
earthly  glory,  and  the  thief  in  the  depths  of 
shame,  have  but  one  testimony  of  the  Faultless 
Christ. 

The  confession  of  doubting  Thomas,  the 
penitence  of  the  denying  Peter,  the  tragic  end 
of  Judas  the  traitor,  the  cry  of  the  Roman 
centurion,  “Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God,” 
are  all  tributes  to  the  Faultless  Christ. 

The  persistent  fiendishness  with  which  the 
Jews  again  and  again  tried  to  put  Jesus  in  the 
apparent  wrong  is  seen  in  the  case  of  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery.  It  is  adultery,  a  thing  men 
talk  about  in  wdiispers.  It  is  the  woman  side  of 
it;  popularly  the  blackest.  “She  was  taken 
in  the  act.  The  man,  somehow  is  not  here, 
but  we  have  caught  the  woman.  Now,  Moses 
said,  ‘Stone  her,’  but  what  sayest  thou?” 
How  better  could  a  white  soul  have  met  the 
whole  miserable  affair?  Jesus  writes  on  the 
ground.  This  business  is  their  own  affair,  it  is 
too  base  for  him  to  touch  except  as  he  must. 
Let  him  without  sin — let  him  who  has  never 
been  just  where  this  woman  was  caught — cast 
the  first  stone.  The  eldest,  he  to  whom  it  was 
the  most  shameful,  went  out  first,  and  every  one 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  PILATE  175 


of  them  went  with  him.  Then  the  woman,  told 
she  has  been  a  sinner,  probably  deserving  all  she 
gets,  is  bidden  to  go  and  sin  no  more.  How 
Jesus  preserves  the  very  air  of  purity,  how  he 
upholds  both  law  and  conscience,  how  he  puts 
the  lash  on  meanness,  how  he  shows  mercy  to 
the  weak,  how  he  trains  with  the  beaten!  No 
wonder  John  remembers  for  three  score  years 
this  vision  of  the  Faultless  Christ. 

The  minister  as  he  is,  his  office  and  mission, 
is  forever  the  worthy  study  of  the  minister. 
What  more  effective  sidelight  than  to  see  himself 
as  an  ambassador  of  the  Faultless  Christ?  He 
learns  his  pattern  is  the  highest  ideal,  that  a 
faultless  one  can  never  be  less  than  God,  that  a 
faultless  one  will  always  have  large  mission 
among  faulty  men,  that  his  whole  heart’s  love 
may  fasten  on  the  perfect,  that  a  thousand  good 
things  follow  on  this  wondrous  acquaintance 
with  the  Faultless  Christ. 

The  herald  of  the  Faultless  is  under  bonds  to 
the  highest  virtue,  personally.  Does  he  fail  to 
thank  God  he  is  not  as  other  men  are,  he  will 
have  a  running  start  toward  being  the  thing. 
Holiness  bears  poorly  either  bisection  or  dis¬ 
section.  The  Christian  and  the  holy  man,  as 
two  men,  have  no  insurable  destiny.  As  one 
man  they  are  immortal.  A  common  Bible  and 
hymn  book  name  for  a  good  man  is  plain 


176 


SENT  FORTH 


“saint.”  That  the  minister  should  be  saintly 
calls  for  no  argument.  Though  in  literal  deed, 
probably,  one  man  should  be  as  holy  as  another, 
they  who  bear  the  vessels  of  the  Lord  above  all 
men  dare  not  wilt  and  fail.  Prophets  of  light, 
they  should  walk  in  light.  To  talk  about  it  less 
is  to  reach  it  sooner. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


The  beauty  of  holiness  has  the  best  of  authority. 

That  ministers  should  be  likable  is  of  their  cur¬ 
riculum.  There  is  no  especial  piety  in  the  disagree¬ 
able. 

Our  likes  are  of  us.  We  are  never  exactly  certain 
of  them.  Jesus  was  better  than  innocent.  He  was 
virtuous. 

WTien  the  call  of  the  hour  is  to  be  planetary,  to 
be  provincial  falls  into  sin. 

With  every  passing  age  the  earth  is  to  be  more  and 
more  a  world  of  scholars. 

It  did  not  happen  that  white-souled  women  were 
at  home  with  Jesus. 

There  is  something  queer  in  an  age  when  men  are 
not  led  of  the  Christ. 

God  has  small  use  for  the  theatrical.  He  does  not 
need  to  play  at  being  either  great  or  good. 

Thousands  in  all  ages  verily  think  within  them¬ 
selves  that  particularity  is  piety. 


177 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  BIBLE  CHURCH 

The  modern  minister’s  work  is  with  and 
through  his  Bible  and  his  church.  The  Bible 
church  is  therefore  to  him  a  matter  of  perennial 
interest.  It  is  more  so  that  never  was  the 
church  so  under  criticism.  Indeed,  a  primary 
question  is  as  to  the  discount  of  the  church  in 
our  time  and  age.  It  has  a  variety  of  answers. 
Chief  among  them  is  the  fact  that  the  church 
has  happily  come  to  be  the  great  organic  exhibit 
of  the  good  as  against  evil.  The  wickedness 
of  the  world  has  wit  enough  to  find  its  foe. 
Slavery,  intemperance,  graft,  deceit,  thievery, 
murder,  lust  mobilize  great  armies.  The  church 
cannot  complain  at  what  goes  with  the  job. 
Another  obvious  consideration  is  the  inevitable 
weaknesses  that  run  with  the  human  stuff  of  the 
church.  The  church  is  built  of  men  and  not 
angels.  Another  factor  is  the  frequent  miscon¬ 
ception  of  the  church  genius.  Seeing  is  much  a 
matter  of  eyes.  The  world  expects  what  is 
often  not  of  the  church  mission  or  message,  and 
in  its  absence  complains.  Again,  a  changing  and 
various  environment  has  its  effect.  It  is  not 

178 


THE  BIBLE  CHURCH 


179 


always  easy  to  keep  up  with  the  times.  The 
right  thing  often  comes  late.  The  church  is 
confessedly  in  process.  It  is  not  built  but 
building.  Personal  dereliction,  ignorant  or  will¬ 
ful,  or  both,  not  rarely  begets  hard  words,  harm¬ 
ful  even  when  defensible.  “They  know  not  what 
they  do.”  It  is  probable  that  after  all  explain¬ 
ing  the  church  will  be  a  target.  Criticism,  like 
the  poor,  will  be  always  with  us. 

In  using  the  expression  “The  Bible  church” 
we  get  automatically  a  definition  of  the  church! 
It  is  the  thing  the  Bible  makes  it.  Stephen 
spoke  of  the  “church  in  the  wilderness.” 
Judaism  was  a  church.  Jesus  said  he  would 
build  his  church.  Christendom  is  a  church. 
The  Spirit  said  things  to  the  churches.  As  to 
the  New  Testament  every  formal  aggregation 
of  good  men  for  aggressive  goodness  was  of  the 
church.  There  were  other  sheep  not  of  their 
fold.  They  also  were  to  be  brought.  Every 
soul  the  Christ  touches  for  final  good  in  all 
times  and  places  is  of  his  church.  To  every 
intent  and  purpose,  a  sincere  formal  concept  of 
an  organic  goodness,  anywhere  or  anyhow,  is 
the  Bible  notion  of  the  church.  It  may  be 
called  a  discipleship,  a  family,  a  fold,  a  way,  a 
kingdom,  a  people,  a  brotherhood,  a  house,  the 
image  of  God,  a  doing  well,  grace  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Lord,  righteousness,  worship,  the  salt  of 


180 


SENT  FORTH 


the  earth,  the  light  of  the  world — names  in¬ 
numerable — but  the  concept  of  a  formal  organic 
goodness  persists  in  all.  Each  separate  title 
conveys  a  shade  of  meaning  all  its  own.  A  fold, 
a  family,  a  kingdom,  righteousness,  worship,  all 
add  something.  The  common  denominator  is 
an  intelligent  organized  goodness.  Something 
is  shut  out  and  something  is  shut  in.  Any 
institution  standing  formally  for  God  and  the 
good,  as  men  are  given  to  see  the  light,  is  the 
Bible  notion  of  the  church.  Our  article  of 
religion  specifying  a  visible  church  evidently 
dreams  of  the  yet  larger  concept,  the  church 
invisible. 

Unless  Bible  religion  is  to  be  tribal  or  pro¬ 
vincial,  ancient,  mediaeval,  or  modern,  a  thing 
of  shreds  and  patches,  a  broad  defining  of  the 
church,  one  reaching  the  planet  in  every  age,  is 
inevitable.  A  world  religion  must  garment  the 
world.  Our  eyes  and  hearts  and  hands  must 
gather  to  themselves,  not  some  good  men,  but 
all  good  men. 

If  Cain,  the  fratricide,  in  time  does  well,  he  is 
accepted.  If  Noah  is  the  last  one  worth  keeping, 
he  will  be  kept.  Abraham  and  Melchisedec 
alike  are  of  God’s  order.  Moses  is  not  in  Egypt 
for  the  Israelites  alone.  It  does  not  happen 
that  Jonah  goes  to  Nineveh.  Rome  does  not 
dominate  the  earth,  even  the  chosen  people,  for 


THE  BIBLE  CHURCH 


181 


nothing;  Grecian  learning  does  not  saturate 
mankind  by  accident;  Cornelius,  ready  to  wor¬ 
ship  a  man,  is  still  accepted  with  God.  The 
rawest  heathen  under  the  sun  is  without  excuse. 
He  knew  God.  He  had  his  chance  with  the 
Church  of  God.  The  altar  in  Athens  was  a  seat 
of  ignorant  worship,  but  a  seat  of  worship.  An 
apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  declared  there  from  the 
living  God.  To  perceive  that  in  every  nation 
he  that  fears  God  and  works  righteousness  is 
accepted  with  God  may  come  late,  but  it  must 
come.  The  order  of  Saint  Peter  must  persist  in 
spite  of  Peter.  “God  is  no  respecter  of  persons.” 

The  well-intentioned  man  who  will  not  link 
himself  up  with  the  Church  of  God  refuses 
almost  universally  for  some  minor  reason. 
Certain  individuals  are  uncongenial.  A  local 
church  is  distasteful.  The  particular  denomi¬ 
nation  is  not  attractive.  The  preacher  does  not 
please.  This  particular  person  should  be  shown 
he  is  divorcing  himself  from  the  ongoings  of  the 
universe.  With  everything  distasteful,  the 
truly  good  man  will  align  himself  with  what 
stands  formally  for  God  in  any  locality.  And  be 
happy.  “He  that  is  not  for  me  is  against  me.” 
It  usually  happens  that  behind  the  declared 
intellectual  disturbance  is  a  self-will,  proud  in 
its  isolation,  that  cannot  follow  a  Jesus  of  the 
cross.  As  fearing  God  and  working  righteous- 


182 


SENT  FORTH 


ness  Cornelius  was  in  God’s  church.  When 
baptized  he  merely  sank  deeper  into  the  church. 
A  missionary  in  heathen  lands  does  not  discredit 
or  overlook  any  goodness  that  he  finds.  He 
builds  upon  it.  Because  one  does  not  coun¬ 
tenance  Romanism,  or  Christian  Science,  or 
Premillennialism,  that  he  has  something  better 
as  a  whole,  he  must  not  discredit  the  real  and 
larger  good  that  floats  these  aberrations.  The 
wood  and  hay  and  stubble  may  not  stand 
fire  some  day,  but  the  gold  and  silver  and 
precious  stones  will.  The  foundation  carries 
far.  Only  4 'let  every  man  take  heed  how  he 
buildeth  thereupon.”  In  a  word,  the  Bible 
church  is  quite  a  larger  matter  than  our  usual 
dreams  or  definitions. 

“For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 

Than  the  measure  of  man’s  mind; 

And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 
Is  most  wonderfully  kind.” 

With  the  Church  of  God,  then  in  its  essen¬ 
tial  essence  coterminous  with  the  human  race, 
we  have  an  intense  interest  in  every  Godward 
groping  of  mankind.  Wherever  idolatry  covered 
a  wicked  lustful  heart,  it  was  wicked  and  lustful 
as  everywhere  other.  Did  it  happen  the  god 
of  one’s  hands,  the  brute,  the  breeze,  the  sun  in 
his  strength,  was  a  stairway  to  a  soul  eager  for 


THE  BIBLE  CHURCH 


183 


the  best  and  better,  it  was  worship.  It  is  Bible 
doctrine  that  God  looketh  on  the  heart,  that 
it  is  what  goeth  forth  therefrom  that  defiles  a 
man.  That  men  should  seek  the  Lord,  feel 
after  him  and  find  him,  though  he  be  not  far 
from  any  one  of  us,  is  religion  anywhere,  natural 
or  revealed.  There  is  something  sacred  in 
every  soul  on  its  knees.  When  the  Moham¬ 
medan  declares  that  there  is  one  God,  and 
prays  to  him  early  and  late,  to  be  a  Moham¬ 
medan  does  not  make  this  good  thing  evil.  A 
hypocrite  is  a  hypocrite  in  Turkey,  Jerusalem 
or  Rome.  A  true  soul  is  a  true  soul  anywhere 
and  always.  The  pantheist  did  not  automatic¬ 
ally  lose  God  in  thinking  him  the  sum  total  of 
all  things.  It  was  much  of  a  Christian  who  said 
of  us  all,  “In  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being.”  That  God  is  good  and  good  is  God 
is  not  entirely  happy,  but  neither  is  it  totally 
astray.  No  man  on  earth  can  be  guaranteed  as 
having  an  absolutely  correct  theology.  If  he 
were  so  guaranteed,  he  might  still  be  little  the 
better.  It  is  the  deliberate  slant  of  the  soul 
toward  the  true  and  good  that  is  of  worth. 

It  should  go,  then,  without  saying,  that  the 
church  is  a  precious  thing  to  God.  When  one 
remembers  the  slight  hold  the  church  often  has 
upon  the  world  and  upon  the  millions  of  its  own, 
it  is  astounding  to  read  what  it  means  to  the 


184 


SENT  FORTH 


Eternal  Father.  Were  men  and  women  in 
thousands  to  treat  their  families,  their  friends, 
their  affairs  as  they  do  the  church,  their  homes 
and  business  would  be  broken  up,  and  they 
would  be  vagabonds  among  men.  Yet  the 
church  is  the  Church  of  God.  The  church  is 
purchased  of  God,  “with  his  own  blood.”  Jesus 
called  it  affectionately  “My  church,”  and  said 
he  would  give  good  time  to  building  it.  The 
Holy  Spirit  talks  with  the  churches.  “Hear 
what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches.”  Such 
as  were  being  saved  “The  Lord  added  daily  to 
the  church.”  The  man  who  neglected  to  hear 
the  church  was  to  be  as  an  heathen  man  and 
publican.  Christ  loved  the  church  and  gave 
himself  for  it.  He  is  the  head  of  the  body, 
which  is  the  church.  It  is  to  be  a  glorious 
church.  The  names  of  this  church  of  the  first¬ 
born  are  written  in  Heaven.  It  is  of  the  grievous 
sins  that  men  should  give  “offense  to  the 
Church  of  God.”  How  strange  it  looks  and  is, 
that  literally  millions  thinking  themselves 
Christians  will  not  formally  give  their  honor  to 
the  church!  Other  millions  are  utterly  absurd 
and  farcical  in  the  actual  help  they  are  to  the 
church,  though  of  it  and  in  it.  Others  rate  it 
with  their  lodge,  club,  school,  market,  pro¬ 
fession,  trade,  business,  judged  by  their  warmth 
of  heart  or  expression.  The  church,  precious 


THE  BIBLE  CHURCH 


185 


to  God,  is  cheap  to  men.  It  would  be  a  sad 
thing  for  the  world  did  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  die  overnight.  It  does  overemphasize 
the  church,  but  it  emphasizes  it.  The  lax 
church  condition  in  Protestantism  is  in  a 
measure  the  reaction  from  Romanism.  The 
time  may  come  when  wise  men  and  good 
will  yet  more  largely  respect  the  Pope.  The 
church  needs  all  its  friends.  Precious  to  God, 
it  must  be  made  dear  to  men. 

The  thought  of  God  as  related  to  the  church 
is  seen  again  in  the  evolution  of  the  church. 
There  is  no  church  except  as  related  to  God. 
Jesus  said  he  would  found  his  church  on  a 
certain  rock.  The  crude  insistence  of  Romanism 
that  Peter  was  that  rock  is  a  glaring  weakness. 
No  man  can  be  foundation  for  the  church.  So 
Paul  said,  ‘ ‘Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay 
than  that  which  is  laid  which  is  Jesus  Christ.” 
That  the  dynamic  of  the  gospel  is  an  organic 
literal  machine  handed  down  without  break  is 
so  artificial  as  to  discredit  itself.  Organism  is 
but  a  vehicle  of  life,  a  channel  in  which  the  river 
runs.  The  concept  of  the  confession  of  Peter  as 
the  rock  is  a  step  nearer  the  truth  but  is  still 
unsatisfactory.  The  human  confession,  indeed, 
is  always  in  evidence.  The  man  that  believes 
the  gospel  so  confesses  before  men  and  is 
confessed  before  the  angels  of  heaven.  But 


186 


SENT  FORTH 


the  church  is  more  than  a  fellowship  or  test 
of  faith. 

The  long  and  wide  discussion  as  to  what 
“this  rock”  may  be  is  really  strange,  almost 
uncanny.  It  seems  so  unnecessary.  The  mind 
of  Jesus  was  intent  upon  what  the  world 
thought  him  to  be.  “Whom  do  men  say  that  I 
am?”  When  Peter  declared  him  “the  Son  of 
the  living  God,”  he  was  told  nothing  less  than 
the  revelation  of  the  Father  in  heaven  had  made 
the  declaration  possible.  God  Almighty,  making 
himself  known  to  the  world,  is  the  Rock  on 
which  the  world  is  forever  building.  God  with 
us,  Immanuel,  is  the  hope  of  the  earth.  Not 
Peter,  nor  Peter’s  abstract  confession,  nor  even 
the  historic  Christ,  but  the  mighty  fact  that 
God  will  not  keep  to  himself,  is  the  base  rock 
of  the  church,  the  soul  of  all  religion.  The 
visible  universe,  the  inception  of  life,  the 
superior  life  of  men,  the  Bible,  the  incarnation, 
the  spiritual  experiences  of  the  soul,  the 
church  are  all  the  footprints  of  the  Eternal. 
God  is  the  great  Fact  in  life.  As  we  learn  God, 
we  build  his  church. 

As  in  all  other  life,  God  builds  his  church  in 
collaboration  with  men.  The  harvests  of  the 
earth  are  sown  and  garnered.  Culture  is  the 
fruit  of  study.  He  that  has  friends  has  shown 
himself  friendly.  So  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 


THE  BIBLE  CHURCH 


187 


also  opened  with  keys,  gives  up  its  treasures  to 
the  hands  of  men.  There  is  a  ministry  of  angels, 
but  it  is  not  the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  That 
is  the  heritage  of  man.  Here  is  the  terrifying 
benediction  of  human  freedom.  Here  is  the 
slow  march  of  righteousness  in  the  earth.  It  is 
exactly  the  same  as  the  slow  march  of  science, 
art,  commerce,  the  social  order,  and  human 
comfort.  Man’s  hand  is  on  it  and  it  crawls. 
There  is  no  evident  reason  why  God  the 
Omnipotent  might  not  have  built  the  physical 
order  of  things  in  literally  six  days  or  in  six 
ages.  But  wdth  man  on  earth,  the  story  changes. 
He  is  henceforth  in  bonds  to  human  freedom. 

God  brought  the  animals  to  Adam  to  see  what 
he  might  call  them.  God  planted  his  garden, 
and  for  dressing  and  keeping  calls  in  the 
gardener.  God  came  down  to  see  the  city  and 
the  tower  which  the  children  of  men  builded. 
“My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me?”  was  the  cry  of  the  Son  of  man.  The 
terror  of  human  freedom  was  on  him.  It  is  one 
of  the  magic  secrets  of  all  history  that  God 
forsakes  his  creatures  betimes  and  they  'walk 
alone.  By  and  by  they  will  run,  and  the  earth 
will  sing.  The  keys  will  not  forever  stick  in 
the  lock.  Keys  were  made  and  were  given  to 
open  with.  It  is  a  favorite  premillennial 
teaching  that  the  only  hope  of  the  world  is  the 


188 


SENT  FORTH 


second  coming  of  the  Lord.  The  first  is  a 
disappointment.  But  Jesus  himself,  who  surely 
knows,  and  is  a  party  at  interest,  says  the  keys  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  are  given  to  men.  What 
they  bind  and  loose  on  earth  are  bound  and 
loosed  in  heaven.  The  hope  of  the  earth  is  the 
faithfulness  of  the  church. 

As  to  the  future  of  the  church  Jesus  sees  no 
doubt  or  fear.  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it.  To  the  Jews,  Hades,  or 
hell,  was  primarily  collapse,  ruin,  helplessness, 
failure.  There  is  no  failure  for  the  church. 
That  the  order  of  things  incident  to  the  first 
coming  of  Jesus  will  not  save  the  world  is  squarely 
denied  by  the  whole  trend  of  the  New  Testament 
teaching.  Premillennialism  is  a  libel  on  the  rec¬ 
ords  of  its  Lord.  “He  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put 
all  enemies  under  his  feet.”  “Whose  fan  is  in  his 
hand,  and  he  will  thoroughly  purge  his  floor,  and 
will  gather  the  wheat  into  his  garner.”  “Be  of 
good  cheer;  I  have  overcome  the  world.”  “Fear 
not;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last:  I  am  he  that 
liveth,  and  was  dead;  and.  Behold,  I  am  alive  for 
evermore,  and  have  the  keys  of  Hell  and  death.” 
Yet  this  is  the  Lord  that  must  come  again,  or 
there  is  no  hope  for  the  earth! 

While  perhaps  pessimism  as  to  the  future  of 
the  church  among  good  men  is  vastly  more 
dangerous,  yet  a  word  is  worth  while  as  to  the 


THE  BIBLE  CHUBCH 


189 


expectations  of  men  of  the  world.  To  them  the 
very  existence  of  evil  is  a  reproach.  Then, 
too,  there  is  its  persistence.  Add  to  that  its 
frequent  dominance.  Further,  the  Armageddon 
of  the  earth  is  not  between  black  and  white, 
but  between  gray  and  brown.  Good  people 
have  their  bad  half  hours,  and  bad  people  are 
often  quite  presentable.  Evil  is  largely  well 
dressed  and  comfortable  while  the  good  is  not 
rarely  in  rags  and  hungry.  It  is  a  painful  matter 
to  the  saints,  and  that  the  unregenerate  some¬ 
times  consider  God  is  nothing  that  they  should 
serve  him  is  hardly  idiocy,  to  say  the  least. 

The  answers  are  numberless  and  ring  with 
good  cheer.  Whatever  happens,  men  are  free; 
their  evil  is  their  fault,  their  good  is  virtue. 
God  takes  long  time  and  wide  spaces;  the  wrong 
and  hard  to  haste  and  narrowness  grows 
desirable  when  the  whole  issue  stands  revealed. 
In  all  the  processes  character  is  determined,  and 
character  is  destiny.  There  is  no  waste,  or 
“rubbish  to  the  void,”  in  any  world.  The  love 
of  God  is  magnified.  The  worst  never  happens. 
Even  to  the  lost  God  is  forever  kind  and  good; 
the  remainder  of  wrath  is  restrained;  men 
never  get  the  length  of  their  rope.  The  very 
slowness  of  moral  processes  immortalizes  their 
results.  Slavery,  drunkenness,  lust,  greed  are  the 
more  hopelessly  dead  that  they  are  long  in  dying. 


190 


SENT  FORTH 


Concretely,  there  were  never  so  many  people 
on  the  earth  as  to-day:  the  planet  has  been  a 
fruitful  kindly  mother  with  all  its  miseries. 
With  every  bat- winged  thing  considered,  the 
average  of  human  longevity  rises  steadily. 
Womankind — toy,  and  tool,  and  trial,  and 
tears — is  queen  and  companion  as  in  no  other 
age.  Childhood  comes  to  years  with  a  full  life 
beyond  all  other  days.  Men  were  never  at  such 
premium  in  court,  or  church,  or  market,  or 
school,  or  the  records  of  history;  democracy  is 
hours  beyond  the  sunrise.  There  was  never  the 
publicity  of  our  age:  men  always  right  the 
wrong  more  readily  as  they  know.  Refinement  is 
not  the  whole  of  religion,  but  that  vice  is  driven 
to  be  respectable  is  of  the  dawn,  under  any  sky. 
There  was  never  so  much  everyday  human 
comfort.  Our  poverty  and  distress  sink  all  the 
deeper  that  we  know  the  worst  is  behind. 

The  Church  of  God  is  not  yet  builded;  it  is 
in  the  building.  The  gates  of  hell  look  less  and 
less  like  victors.  Toil  and  sowing  are  forever 
heralds  of  the  harvest.  The  school  and  lesson 
never  fail  to  widen  and  deepen  knowledge.  It 
is  surely  a  warped  and  twisted  mind,  if  not  a 
hard  heart,  that  must  insist  the  river  will  not 
reach  the  sea.  Nothing  other  than  this  Church 
of  God,  the  dwelling  place  of  the  Eternal,  is 
the  hope  of  the  earth. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


Any  institution  standing  formally  for  God  and  the 
good  as  men  are  given  to  see  the  light  is  the  Bible 
notion  of  the  church. 

The  well-intentioned  man  who  will  not  link 
himself  up  with  the  Church  of  God  refuses  almost 
universally  for  a  very  minor  reason. 

There  is  something  sacred  in  a  soul  on  its  knees. 

The  church  precious  to  God,  is  cheap  to  men. 

God  with  us,  Immanuel,  is  the  hope  of  the  earth. 

The  slow  march  of  Religion  is  exactly  the  slow 
march  of  Science,  Art,  Commerce,  the  Social  Order 
and  Human  Comfort.  Man’s  hand  is  on  it  and  it 
crawls. 

It  is  of  the  magic  secrets  of  all  history  that  God 
forsakes  his  creatures  betimes  and  they  walk  alone. 
By  and  by  they  will  run  and  the  earth  will  sing. 

The  worst  never  happens.  Even  to  the  lost 
God  is  forever  good  and  kind. 

The  Church  of  God  is  the  hope  of  the  earth. 


191 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES 

That  the  book  of  Revelation  should  be  a 
manual  of  practical  advice  reads  queerly  when 
one  remembers  the  chaos  men  make  of  it. 
“The  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  God 
gave  unto  him,  to  shew  unto  his  servants 
things  which  must  shortly  come  to  pass.” 
“Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and  they  that  hear 
the  words  of  this  prophecy,  and  keep  those 
things  which  are  written  therein :  for  the  time  is 
at  hand.”  Whatever  the  Apocalypse  may  hold, 
it  holds  to  be  understood.  Its  native  air  is  not 
fog  but  sunlight.  The  book  of  Revelation  is  a 
book  of  revelation.  Its  difficulties  are  troubles 
of  size.  The  physical  universe  is  so  big  it  was 
only  this  morning  that  we  began  to  chart  it,  or 
read  it.  The  word  of  God  carries  a  like  burden 
with  the  world  of  God.  “He  that  hath  an  ear 
let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the 
churches.”  The  trouble  is  ear  trouble. 

A  further  thing  to  be  remembered  is  that  the 
Revelation  is  an  integral  part  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  same  Divine  One  who  spoke 
his  will  in  Galilee,  and  Judsea,  and  later  to  Saul 

192 


THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES 


193 


of  Tarsus,  now  appears  to  John,  the  son  of 
Zebedee.  Whatever  lesson  we  get  from  the 
Apocalypse  is  a  lesson  from  the  skies.  Rational 
it  is,  but  never  rationalistic.  Confessedly  and 
inescapably  it  is  a  supernatural  affair.  The 
seven  candlesticks,  the  golden  girdle,  the  head 
and  hair  of  snow,  the  eyes  as  a  flame  of  fire,  the 
voice  as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  the  face  as 
the  sun  shining  in  its  strength,  are  but  attempts 
at  sketching  the  majesty  of  the  great  God  that 
little  people  might  see.  “And  when  I  saw  him, 
I  fell  at  his  feet  as  dead.”  The  supernatural  is 
assumed  in  the  book  of  Revelation.  Perhaps  it 
is  the  thing  exactly  the  modern  church  may 
need.  The  supernatural  is  forever  a  dynamic. 

As  there  cannot  be  a  model  minister,  so 
there  is  no  model  church.  It  takes  the  good 
qualities  of  seven  churches  to  throw  in  relief 
what  anv  one  church  is  to  strive  after.  Seven 
with  the  Hebrew  was  completeness.  “The 
seven  churches  which  are  in  Asia,”  will  give  a 
rounded  notion  of  the  ideal  church.  This  is 
the  value  of  our  study,  as  applied  to  the  modern 
church  life  and  task.  Asia  Minor  is  not  so  far 
away  as  to  geography  or  chronology  that  we 
do  not  get  great  and  wise  lessons. 

Strangely  enough,  the  church  at  Ephesus 
may  be  classed  as  the  Church  Decadent.  It 
was  the  church  to  which  Paul  wrote  his  won- 


194 


SENT  FORTH 


derful  epistle,  where  both  Apollos  and  he  had 
long  labored,  where  Aquila  and  Priscilla  had 
lived,  a  church  of  great  privilege.  Yet  it  was 
here  where  men  had  left  their  first  love,  where  a 
church  might  not  be  a  church,  where  a  church 
might  die.  How  significant  to  read  the  things 
that  keep  a  church  alive! — works,  patience, 
holiness,  intelligence,  persevering  strength.  The 
normal  life  of  a  church  is  an  endurance,  an 
overcoming.  Too  many  churches  do  not 
take  themselves  seriously.  Its  best  evidences 
are  the  epileptic  drives,  evangelistic,  social, 
and  financial,  to  which  they  must  subject 
themselves.  The  steady  labor  without  fainting 
is  of  the  first  works,  to  which  there  must  be 
penitent  return.  The  revival  season  is  a  snare. 
A  financial  fever  is  a  contagion.  It  is  he  that 
overcomes  that  eats  of  the  tree  of  life.  Though 
decadent,  Ephesus  may  regain  her  glory. 

The  message  to  the  church  at  Smyrna 
emphasizes  the  earthly  life  and  mission  of 
Jesus.  It  was  he  that  was  dead  and  lived  again 
who  commands  these  things.  A  deified  Christ 
must  have  been  an  historic  Christ.  Men  may 
not  say  their  prayers  to  a  myth.  Plow  much 
this  would  mean  to  John!  He  sees  his  Apoc¬ 
alypse  in  the  light  of  the  three  wonderful 
years.  It  is  of  a  startling  contingency  to  study 
exhaustively  the  four  Gospels.  Anyone  who  will 


THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES 


195 


do  it  comes  out  absolute  skeptic  or  good 
Christian.  He  breathes  their  air  or  dies 
of  it. 

Smyrna  is  the  suffering  church.  Its  tribula¬ 
tion,  poverty,  persecutions,  fears  are  note¬ 
worthy.  Its  faithfulness  was  to  be  unto  death. 
That  is  something  other  than  until  death. 
Chronology  is  not  particularly  of  the  virtues. 
Their  comfort  at  Smyrna  was  that  they  were 
not  to  be  hurt  of  a  second  death.  He  who  could 
live  again,  having  been  dead,  could  see  them 
through.  Church  success  is  not  always  the 
success  of  the  church.  If  the  church  is  a 
vehicle  for  its  citizens  to  overcome,  to  escape 
the  second  death,  it  may  itself  collapse  and  dis¬ 
appear.  The  mothers  are  not  few  who  die 
of  their  children.  This  is  the  glory  often  of  first 
churches  in  growing  communities.  Their  im¬ 
mortality  is  of  the  suburbs.  It  is  the  church 
invisible  against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail.  To  hold  to  a  given  organization  in  a 
hopeless  situation  is  not  necessary.  To  keep 
one’s  membership  from  moving,  or  sending  their 
letters  by  freight,  is  doubtful  wisdom.  To  be 
overproud  of  our  denomination  is  a  temptation. 
It  may  be  an  integral  part  of  our  mission  to  be 
high  priests  of  failure.  The  way  of  the  crown 
is  the  way  of  the  cross. 

Pergamos  might  have  been  called  the  Church 


196 


SENT  FORTH 


of  the  Holy  Compromise.  This  is  the  sig¬ 
nificance  of  the  “sharp  sword  with  two  edges.” 
The  sword  is  decision.  Pergamos  had  in  its 
fold  certain  Balaamites,  and  Nicolaitans,  people 
who  considered  that  they  might  be  at  once 
religious  and  licentious,  if  not  licentious  as 
religious.  Good  people  who  consider  the  world 
is  getting  worse,  and  the  worst  is  yet  to  come, 
would  better  read  again  the  story  of  the  old- 
time  heathen  temple  and  its  ritual.  The 
infiltrations  of  religion  with  sexual  passion  at 
least  have  passed.  It  is  a  perennial  sermon 
that  in  a  day  when  it  was  on  hand  it  was  faced 
with  a  sword,  clean-cut,  decisive,  against  it. 
Men  and  women  are  not  helpless  in  the  grip  of 
their  loves.  To  say  one  is  human  is  no  end  of 
argument.  Men  and  women  are  to  be  holy  in 
any  temptation.  Satan’s  throne  may  be  in 
Pergamos.  For  his  faith  Antipas  may  die 
there.  Their  nearest  neighbors  may  eat  things 
sacrificed  to  idols,  and  careless  and  unashamed 
run  riot.  Nevertheless  the  good  man  is  to 
overcome.  “To  him  that  overeometh  will  I 
give  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna,  and  I  will  give 
him  a  white  stone,  and  in  the  stone  a  new  name 
written,  which  no  man  knowetli  saving  he  that 
receiveth  it.”  A  reckless,  careless,  trifling 
world,  delighted  to  play  with  fire,  needs  still 
its  royal  souls  who  walk  in  white.  It  is  not 


THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES 


197 


certain  but  the  modern  struggle  of  religion  is 
beyond  all  dreams  a  battle  with  the  night. 

Pergamos  and  Thyatira  were  hardly  apart  an 
hour’s  ride.  The  degradation  of  the  one  was  the 
collapse  of  the  other.  There  was  little  ahead  in 
Thyatira  but  ruin.  Its  works  and  charity  and 
service  and  patience  and  faith  could  not  save  it. 
“The  Son  of  God,  who  hath  his  eyes  like  unto 
a  flame  of  fire,”  could  not  long  endure  its  vile 
debasement.  He  must  witness  things  sacrificed 
to  idols,  and  fornication  was  not  only  fallen 
into  but  was  taught,  taught  by  a  woman,  a 
prophetess,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  In  spite  of 
warning  it  had  gone  on.  So  very  soon  there  is 
to  be  great  tribulation,  and  the  churches  are  to 
know  the  Son  of  God  is  he  who  trieth  the  reins 
and  hearts.  The  night  is  dark,  but  to  anyone 
who  will  overcome  there  will  be  given  the  morn¬ 
ing  star,  the  shining  of  the  better  day.  An 
impenitent  church  of  Thyatira  will  be  a  per¬ 
ishing  church  in  all  the  ages.  A  faithful  soul 
may  save  itself  in  any  environment. 

The  church  in  Sardis  was  the  original  dead 
church.  He  that  had  the  seven  spirits  and  the 
seven  stars  said  that  they  had  a  name  to  live 
and  were  dead.  The  things  which  remained 
were  ready  to  die.  There  were  a  few  names  in 
Sardis,  a  few  individuals  who  had  not  defiled 
their  garments,  but  the  church  was  dead.  There 


198 


SENT  FORTH 


were  not  ten  left  in  Sodom.  He  that  should 
overcome  under  such  conditions  was  among 
all  men  worthy,  and  should  be  arrayed  in  white 
garments,  and  his  name  in  no  wise  should  be 
blotted  out  of  the  Book  of  Life,  but  should  be 
confessed  before  the  angels  and  the  Father  in 
Heaven.  “He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear 
what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches.” 
There  may  be  such  a  thing  as  a  dead  church.  No 
dead  church  can  infect  a  man  who  is  bound  he 
will  live.  Even  a  dead  church  may  live  again. 
To  know  a  dead  church  when  one  sees  it  is  an 
art.  To  get  it  alive  again  is  an  art  also. 

The  church  in  Philadelphia  and  the  church 
at  Smyrna  were  the  only  ones  against  which  He 
that  is  holy  and  true  found  nothing  to  say. 
Of  what  sort  may  such  a  church  be?  It  is  a 
working  church.  It  is  not  content  with  getting. 
It  gives.  It  is  faithful.  Even  under  persecution 
it  does  not  deny  its  Lord.  It  is  a  church 
beloved  of  God.  It  is  a  church  of  power,  its 
enemies  worship  at  its  feet.  It  is  an  enduring 
church — has  patience.  It  is  a  protected  church 
— saved  from  trial  coming  on  the  whole  earth. 
Its  virtues  are  worthy  of  permanence.  He  that 
overcometh  is  to  be  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  his 
God.  He  is  to  go  out  thence  no  more.  The 
name  of  God,  and  of  the  City  of  God,  are  to  be 
WTitten  upon  him.  Even  in  this  changeful, 


THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES 


199 


dying  world  there  may  be  a  live  church  fit  for 
the  commendation  of  God. 

The  word  “Pharisaical”  will  satisfy  many  as 
a  description  of  the  church  at  Laodicea.  “Be¬ 
cause  thou  art  lukewarm,  and  neither  cold  nor 
hot,  I  will  spue  thee  out  of  my  mouth.” 
“Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich,  and  increased 
with  goods,  and  have  need  of  nothing;  and 
knowest  not  that  thou  art  wretched,  and 
miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked.” 
As  of  Smyrna  and  Philadelphia,  there  was  not  a 
reproachful  word,  so  of  Laodicea  there  was  not  a 
good  word  said.  The  one  only  hopeful  thing  was 
that  they  might  still  repent.  They  might 
become  something  other  than  the  thing  they 
were.  Because  they  were  so  certain  of  them¬ 
selves  it  is  the  “Amen,  the  faithful  and  true 
witness,  the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  God,” 
that  tells  them  they  are  utterly  unthinkable 
and  worthless.  A  church  cannot  live  on  its 
record.  The  riches  of  a  church  are  in  its  virtues. 
The  Lord  Christ  is  outside  a  church  of  Pharisees. 
He  stands  at  the  door  and  knocks.  There  is  no 
future  for  Laodicea  but  to  let  the  Lord  Christ  in. 

There  is  probably  no  needed  lesson  for  the 
churches  of  our  day  that  is  not  taught  in  these 
significant  messages.  If  every  variety  is  not 
found  in  seven,  it  would  hardly  be  found  in 
more.  Each  letter  gets  to  its  church  by  way  of 


200 


SENT  FORTH 


its  angel,  the  pastor  or  bishop.  The  ministry 
is  a  vital  element  in  church  life.  A  cheapened 
pastorate  is  trouble  to  the  parish.  Each 
message  is  of  life  or  death  value.  Each  message 
is  an  honest  word.  Whether  good  or  bad, 
cheering  or  alarming,  each  church  has  the  truth 
about  itself.  Each  message  is  a  word  of  hope, 
the  worst  may  still  become  the  best.  That  a 
church  stands  is  no  evidence  that  it  is  a  church. 
Like  Sardis,  it  may  be  walking  around  dead. 
Like  Smyrna,  its  sufferings  may  be  its  pride. 
Like  Laodicea,  its  pride  may  be  its  shame.  Like 
Philadelphia,  if  not  held  fast,  its  crown  may 
still  be  taken.  Like  Thyatira,  it  may  not  have 
salt  enough  to  save  it.  Like  Ephesus,  its  heart 
may  chill  in  the  work  of  its  hands.  Like 
Pergamos,  it  may  be  so  politic  as  to  be  a  peril. 
Whether  a  church  is  a  church  is  forever  its  own 
affair.  The  help  of  the  hills  is  with  it,  but  only 
as  it  chooses.  It  is  the  common  thought  that 
churches  happen.  The  truth  is  they  are  built. 
More  foresight,  culture,  consecration,  service, 
faith,  dynamic,  spells  a  church  where  before 
was  hardly  scaffolding.  Churches  generally 
are  the  work  of  the  left  hand.  When  the  right 
hand  functions,  they  will  be  of  a  better  sort. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


The  physical  universe  is  so  big  it  was  only  this 
morning  we  began  to  chart  it,  or  read  it.  The  word 
of  God  carries  a  like  burden  with  the  world  of  God. 

Seven,  with  the  Hebrew,  is  completeness.  The 
seven  stars  tell  us  there  is  no  model  minister.  It 
takes  the  best  of  seven  to  make  a  model.  It  takes 
the  best  of  seven  churches  to  make  a  model  church. 

The  revival  season  is  a  snare. 

It  is  of  a  startling  contingency  to  study  the 
Gospels  exhaustively.  One  comes  out  confirmed 
skeptic  or  good  Christian.  He  breathes  their  air 
or  dies  of  it. 

The  immortality  of  the  First  Church  is  of  the 
suburbs.  The  mothers  are  not  few  who  die  of  their 
children. 

To  keep  one’s  membership  from  moving,  or  sending 
on  their  letters  by  freight,  is  doubtful  wisdom.  Babel 
was  the  harvest  of  the  earth. 

To  be  overproud  of  one’s  denomination  is  a 
temptation.  It  may  be  an  integral  part  of  one’s 
mission  to  be  high  priest  of  failure. 

A  reckless,  trifling  world,  delighted  to  play  with 
fire,  needs  still  its  royal  souls  who  walk  in  white. 


201 


CHAPTER  XVII 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER 

What  an  anomaly!  We  do  not  want  to 
believe  it.  The  thought  is  unwelcome.  Yet, 
in  a  true  commanding  sense,  such  is  the  Bible 
introduction  to  Apollos. 

One  of  the  best,  however.  Not  prosy  but 
eloquent.  Not  lazy  but  fervent.  Not  an 
ignoramus  but  instructed.  Whether  poetical, 
rhetorical,  or  critical,  still,  4 ‘mighty  in  the 
Scriptures.”  If  he  had  any  doubt  about  the 
Pentateuch,  or  the  Prophets,  they  did  him  no 
damage.  “He  spake  boldly  in  the  synagogue.” 
Many  a  pulpit  failure  is  heart  failure.  But 
Apollos  was  a  heart  success.  He  did  not  need 
power  but  a  change.  Not  more  heart  but 
another  sort.  His  train  was  on  a  siding. 
“Knowing  only  the  baptism  of  John,”  he 
needed  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  was 
not  ready  to  preach,  as  to  Aquila  and  Priscilla, 
till  he  “knew  the  way  of  God  more  perfectly.” 
To  be  taught,  with  him,  was  to  learn.  Im¬ 
mediately  thereafter  we  find  him  “helping  them 
much  who  had  believed  through  grace;  mightily 

202 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  203 


convincing  the  Jews,  and  that  publicly,  showing 
by  the  Scriptures  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ.” 
Apolios  as  an  unconverted  preacher  is  still  an 
Apollos  without  prejudice.  As  God  gave  him 
to  see  the  light  he  walked  therein. 

Every  converted  man,  like  Apollos,  learns 
the  way  of  God  more  perfectly.  Nicodemus 
knew  quite  a  deal  about  the  way  of  God  as  he 
came  to  Jesus  by  night.  It  had  not  gotten  very 
deeply  into  her  way  of  living,  but  the  Samaritan 
woman  evidently  knew  not  a  little  about  the 
way  of  God.  The  three  thousand  converts  of 
the  Day  of  Pentecost  were  already  “devout 
men.”  Saul  of  Tarsus,  to  himself,  was  doing 
God  service  before  his  vision  on  the  Damascus 
road.  Preaching  to  raw  heathen  in  Athens, 
Paul  said,  “Whom  therefore  ye  ignorantly 
worship,  him  declare  I  unto  you.”  Of  utterly 
degraded  sinners,  sinners  whose  record  defiles 
the  Bible,  Paul  says  again,  “They  are  without 
excuse:  because  that,  when  they  knew  God, 
they  glorified  him  not  as  God.”  Conviction 
always  precedes  conversion.  No  sinner  is  an 
absolute  stranger  to  the  way  of  God.  Every 
converted  man,  with  Apollos,  learns  the  way  of 
God  more  perfectly. 

It  is  a  matter  of  prime  importance  that  every 
minister  shall  have  a  clear  philosophy  of  the 
moral  world  he  lives  in.  No  lawyer  willingly 


204 


SENT  FORTH 


goes  into  a  case  with  his  client  lying  to  him. 
No  physician  undervalues  diagnosis.  The 
empires  of  the  planet  have  learned  in  a  hard 
school,  but  are  at  last  in  love  with  preparedness. 
No  minister  is  a  minister  who  does  not  see 
clearly  what  he  is  about.  Learning  where 
conversion  found  Apollos,  we  know  where  it 
finds  us  all. 

That  Aquila  and  Priscilla  brought  into  the 
life  of  Apollos  some  new  thing  is  evident.  What 
was  that  new  thing?  The  normal  answer 
would  be  that  it  is  a  simple  case  of  New- 
Testament  conversion.  With  the  large  number 
of  accepted  instances  on  record  the  Christian 
world  has  no  trouble.  The  three  thousand 
added  to  the  Lord  at  Pentecost  were  converted. 
Later,  the  many  who,  “hearing  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  believed,”  were  converted.  When  “believ¬ 
ers  were  the  more  added  to  the  Lord,  multitudes 
both  of  men  and  women,”  it  was  easily  so  many 
more  conversions.  When  the  number  of 
disciples  multiplied  in  Jerusalem  greatly,  and  a 
great  number  of  the  priests  “were  obedient  to 
the  faith,”  their  experience  was  conversion. 
So  the  eunuch,  the  Philippian  jailer,  Lydia, 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  Cornelius  and  his  company  are 
considered  commonly  as  having  been  converted. 
That  the  Samaritans,  the  Ephesians,  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty,  and  Apollos  showed 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  205 


certain  variations,  they  have  been  given  other 
classification,  to  no  end  but  confusion.  They 
were  simply  so  many  more  New-Test  ament 
conversions  added  to  the  long  roll  of  the 
conquests  of  the  Lord.  Apollos,  like  the 
Ephesians,  “knowing  only  the  baptism  of 
John,”  is  led  like  them  into  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  a  common  term  for  New-Testament 
conversion. 

One  trenchant  reason  for  saying  Apollos  was 
an  unconverted  preacher  when  Aquila  and 
Priscilla  found  him,  is  the  intriguing  character 
of  Luke’s  writings.  The  most  masterful  penman 
of  the  New’  Testament  is  the  author  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  and  the  Gospel  bearing  his 
name.  No  one  w’hose  contributions  might  be 
dropped  out  would  be  so  great  a  loss  as  Luke.  As 
to  quantity,  Paul  wrote  a  trifle  more.  But  the 
writings  of  Paul  are  letters  sent  to  eleven 
destinations,  and  the  subject  matter,  therefore, 
is  repetitious.  Luke  was  the  first  historian  of 
Christendom,  the  Heredotus  of  the  gospel.  To 
say  that  “history  repeats  itself”  is,  in  fact, 
only  magnificent  rhetoric.  No  event  but  has 
its  day  in  court.  To  write  events  is  rarely  to 
run  to  brevity.  Luke  is  the  Bible  artist  in 
events.  He  probably  put  himself  behind  more 
happenings  than  any  one  author  of  God’s  great 
book.  Any  item  he  records  is  in  great  company. 


206 


SENT  FORTH 


It  was  the  pride  of  Luke  to  write  consecu¬ 
tively,  “in  order.”  This  experience  of  Apollos 
is  not  a  chance  mention  of  a  unique  or  peculiar 
experience.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  a  designed 
purpose  in  a  master  builder.  It  is  said  the 
conversion  of  the  eunuch  was  the  salvation  of 
Africa.  The  conversion  of  Cornelius  was  sal¬ 
vation  at  play  upon  the  Gentiles.  So  perhaps 
Greek  scholarship  and  Hebrew  mysticism  are 
wedded  in  the  conversion  of  Apollos.  Alexan¬ 
dria,  Athens,  Jerusalem,  and  Rome  are  met  in 
Ephesus.  Apollos  was  particularly  cosmopol¬ 
itan,  a  citizen  of  the  world.  Great  enough  to 
rival  Cephas  and  Paul,  in  Grecian  Corinth  men 
said,  “I  am  of  Apollos.”  Great  scholars  say 
that  he  was  quite  competent  to  the  writing  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  A  paragraph  to 
tell  how  he  became  a  normal  and  model  Chris¬ 
tian  was  fitting,  as  it  was  fitting  of  Paul. 
There  is  nothing  so  reasonable  as  that  it 
should  be  the  story  of  his  conversion. 
Confessedly,  Luke  writes  the  tale  of  many 
conversions.  Why  should  Apollos  stand  as  an 
exception? 

Upon  Luke’s  roll  of  beginnings  is  no  one  he  so 
emphasized  as  the  gift,  or  baptism,  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Not  even  Paul  or  John  speaks  of  it  so 
often,  and  no  one  nearly  so  much.  Luke’s 
writings  might  almost  be  called  the  Gospel  of 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  207 


the  Holy  Ghost.  Now,  as  is  well  known, 
chapters  and  verses  are  a  comparatively  recent 
invention  as  to  the  Bible.  When  in  the  very 
next  paragraph,  with  no  break  of  thought  or 
purpose,  we  find  the  instance  of  the  Ephesians 
who  knew  only  the  baptism  of  John,  we  in¬ 
evitably  connect  it  with  the  case  of  Apollos. 
Emowing  only  the  baptism  of  John,  Apollos 
and  the  Ephesians  must  know  the  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  That  without  this  coming  of 
the  Spirit  a  man  is  in  the  flesh  and  none  of 
Christ’s,  was  the  insistent  teaching  of  this  same 
Paul,  and  is  the  accepted  truth  of  the  whole 
New  Testament.  It  is  but  another  way  of 
saying  that  Apollos  was  a  preacher  before  he 
was  converted. 

This  appears  yet  more  conclusively  when  we 
remember  that  not  only  does  Luke  make 
repeated  record  of  this  experience,  but  it  is  the 
only  distinct  experience  he  does  record.  In 
Luke’s  writings  one  will  find  the  common 
words,  “converted,”  “justified,”  “sanctified,” 
“forgiven,”  “repentance,”  “believed,”  “eternal 
life,”  and  many  others  as  applied  to  the  influx 
of  God  to  the  human  soul.  His  usual  and 
favorite  words,  however,  are  in  the  terminology 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  “Baptized  with  the  Spirit,” 
“gift  of  the  Spirit,”  “filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,”  “pouring  out  of  the  Holy  Ghost,” 


208 


SENT  FORTH 


“falling  of  tlie  Holy  Ghost,”  “receiving  the 
Spirit”  are  his  dominant  turns  of  expression. 

If  one  goes  beyond  a  single  crisis  experience 
for  a  Christian,  he  cannot  stop  with  two,  in 
the  multiplicity  of  terms.  The  only  consistent 
interpretation  is  to  read  them  all  as  varying 
phases  of  the  one  experience.  The  one  great 
spiritual  event  all  schools  of  thought  have 
agreed  upon  is  conversion,  the  new  birth, 
that  happens  normally  but  once.  When  a 
distinct  single  uplift  of  soul  comes  to  Apollos, 
without  positive  word  to  the  contrary  we  dare 
not  make  it  any  other  than  the  standardized 
conversion  familiar  to  us  all. 

Because  the  word  “conversion”  is  not  used 
here  of  Apollos,  we  need  not  hesitate  to  face 
the  inevitable  conclusion,  for  our  commonest 
word  is  the  most  uncommon  Bible  word.  There 
are  but  one  or  two  passages  in  the  whole  Bible 
where  “conversion”  (or  any  of  its  cognates) 
means  exactly  what  we  mean  by  it  to-day.  The 
whole  number  hardly  exceed  a  dozen  at  the 
most.  Paul  and  Barnabas,  “declaring  the 
conversion  of  the  Gentiles,”  speak  our  language. 
Conviction,  repentance,  faith,  pardon,  regenera¬ 
tion,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit — all  our  familiar 
concepts — may  be  accepted  here  as  in  the  word 
“conversion.”  No  other  such  passage  may  be 
found.  By  so  much  as  New-Testament  conver- 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  209 


sion  was  of  more  novel  or  larger  content  than 
Old-Testament  conversion,  we  cannot  apply  it 
accurately  to  Old-Testament  terms,  even  when 
quoted  in  the  New  Testament.  When  Isaiah 
said,  “Their  eyes  have  they  closed  lest  they 
should  be  converted  and  I  should  heal  them,” 
the  dynamic  is  the  healing.  Conversion  is  con¬ 
ceived  as  preliminary.  To  us  it  is  the  whole 
transaction.  When  Peter  said,  “Repent  ye 
therefore;  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may 
be  blotted  out,”  conversion  has  the  same  con¬ 
tent.  It  is  a  preliminary.  The  dynamic  is 
the  blotting  out. 

So,  in  yet  other  cases,  conversion  falls  short  of 
our  common  concept.  “Conversion”  to  James 
was  recovery  from  backsliding,  and  is  modified 
by  so  much.  In  a  word,  “conversion”  is  hardly 
at  all  a  Bible  word  for  the  initial  Christian 
experience.  That  it  is  our  most  usual  word 
must  not  blind  us  to  what  was  usual  to  the 
Bible  writers  themselves.  In  using  the  term¬ 
inology  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Luke  was  doing  his 
usual  thing  in  writing  of  conversion,  the 
unusual  thing  to  us.  In  the  better  time  coming 
good  men  will  read  the  Bible  as  it  is  written,  and 
save  themselves  endless  confusion.  They  will 
not  divide  into  camps  and  cults  over  holiness, 
or  religion,  or  Pentecost,  or  names  of  any  sort, 
but  will  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth 


210 


SENT  FORTH 


under  every  name.  It  will  then  occasion  no 
distress  to  hear  one  talk  of  unconverted  preach¬ 
ers.  Apollos  and  John  Wesley,  if  not  one  or  two 
others,  will  be  in  great  good  company. 

The  simple  fact  is  the  Bible  conversion  is  so 
dominant  a  thing  that  any  word  used  to  express 
it  commonly  means  some  partial  phase  of  it. 
Like  looking  at  the  sun,  it  blinds  us,  and  shows 
only  a  face  at  a  time.  Conversion  connotes  the 
idea  of  change.  Regeneration  is  conversion  as  a 
new  life.  Justification  is  conversion  as  a  right 
relation  acquired.  Sanctification  is  conversion 
as  cleansing,  a  setting  apart  from  the  unclean, 
a  proper  condition  acquired.  Holiness  is  con¬ 
version  lengthening  over  the  years,  a  state  as 
fruitage  of  an  event.  Pardon  is  conversion  with 
the  concrete  sin  in  view.  “Death  to  sin”  is  con¬ 
version  as  unmistakable  severance  from  wrong. 
So  with  “crucifixion  of  the  old  man,”  “destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  body  of  sin.”  Conversion  is  never 
a  compromise.  The  baptism  of  the  Spirit,  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  wherever  ethical,  is  conversion 
wrought  by  and  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  Con¬ 
version  has  perhaps  a  thousand  names  in  the 
mighty  Book  of  God,  and  no  one  of  them  tells 
the  wdiole  truth.  Could  all  of  them  be  found 
together,  we  could  not  face  the  whole  truth. 
The  pitiful  divisions  over  special  blessings  are 
only  a  pathetic  proof  that  being  human,  saints 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  211 


sometimes  go  blind.  Apollos,  “Taught  the 
way  of  God  more  perfectly,”  was  led  into  a 
standardized  New-Testament  conversion.  We 
do  not  libel  him  as  having  been  an  unconverted 
preacher. 

A  thing  often  forgotten  is  the  epochal  char¬ 
acter  of  New-Testament  conversion.  Pentecost 
was  cradle  of  an  era.  “I  will  pour  out  of  my 
Spirit  on  all  flesh,  saith  God,  in  the  last  days.” 
“I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water,  He  shall 
baptize  you  with  the  Ploly  Ghost.”  “If  I  go 
not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto 
you;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him.”  “Tarry  ye 
in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  till  ye  be  endued  with 
power  from  on  high.”  “As  I  began  to  speak, 
the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  them,  as  on  us  at  the 
beginning.”  “Of  which  salvation,  the  prophets 
have  inquired  and  searched  diligently  who 
prophesied  of  the  grace  that  should  come  to 
you  unto  whom  it  was  revealed  that  not  unto 
themselves  but  unto  you  they  did  minister  the 
things  reported  unto  you  by  them  that  have 
preached  the  gospel  unto  you  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  sent  down  from  Heaven,  which  things  the 
angels  desire  to  look  into.” 

Could  this  wonderful  benediction  of  a  world 
era  have  been  some  special  secondary  affair 
which  only  a  few  especially  good  men  here  and 
there  may  attain  or  obtain?  It  is  more  likely 


212 


SENT  FORTH 


that  nothing  short  of  the  one  great  blessing  by 
which  all  men  become  sons  of  God  is  the  fitting 
fulfillment.  This  one  epochal  experience  inter¬ 
prets  the  signs  and  wonders  of  the  apostolic 
age.  As  Jesus  worked  miracles,  that  he  was  a 
unique  and  new  Person  in  the  world,  the  Son  of 
God,  so  tongues  and  gifts  of  healing  testified 
to  the  advent  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  one 
epochal  experience  explains  the  tarrying  in 
Jerusalem.  It  was  worth  it. 

This  one  epochal  experience  justifies  the  care 
and  emphasis  of  the  early  church  in  its  pro¬ 
jection  and  statement.  The  first  sermon  at 
Pentecost  offered  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
the  penitent  sinners  at  Jerusalem.  Philip 
carried  it  to  Samaria.  Peter  and  John  prayed 
and  laid  on  hands  that  men  might  have  it. 
Ananias  said  to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  “Jesus  hath 
sent  me  that  thou  mightest  be  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost.”  Cornelius  and  his  household 
were  given  the  “falling  of  the  Holy  Ghost.” 
Paul  would  not  be  content  until  the  Ephesians 
who  had  not  heard  of  such  a  thing  should 
“receive  the  Holy  Ghost.”  Aquila  and  Priscilla 
would  not  let  Apollos  preach  longer  till  he  knew 
this  something  larger  than  the  baptism  of  John. 

This  one  epochal  experience  explains  the 
ethical  situation  of  saved  men  before  Pentecost. 
“Were  not  the  disciples  converted  before 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  218 


Pentecost?”  Certainly,  with  the  conversion 
attainable  in  their  day:  as  the  eunuch  was 
converted  before  he  met  Philip;  as  Cornelius 
was  converted  before  Peter  crossed  his  path; 
as  the  Ephesians  were  converted  before  Paul’s 
questioning;  as  Apollos  was  converted  before 
the  impertinence  of  Aquila  and  Priscilla.  In  all 
these  cases  it  was  being  4 ‘Taught  the  way  of 
God  more  perfectly,”  the  going  on  to  a  greater 
conversion.  It  was  eminently  fitting  that  these 
souls,  so  near  the  Kingdom,  should  be  led  into 
the  full  experience  they  were  to  preach.  They 
would  then  be  examples  of  their  own  preaching. 

The  same  Bible  that  said  Cornelius  was 
accepted  of  God  said  also  he  was  yet  to  be 
saved.  The  same  Bible  that  said  Jerusalem 
was  crowded  with  devout  men  said  likewise 
they  were  to  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  without 
which  men  are  in  the  flesh  and  none  of  Christ’s. 
The  same  Bible  that  said  Paul  was  void  of 
offense  toward  God  and  men,  said  he  still 
needed  to  receive  the  Holy  Ghost.  So  the 
Ephesians,  measured  by  John’s  baptism,  are 
converted;  measured  by  Paul’s  question,  they 
are  unconverted.  So  Apollos,  measured  by 
John  the  Baptist,  is  converted;  measured  by 
Aquila  and  Priscilla,  he  is  unconverted.  This  is 
what  Jesus  meant  when  he  said,  “Among  them 
that  are  born  of  women  there  hath  not  risen  a 


£14 


SENT  FORTH 


greater  than  John  the  Baptist,  notwithstanding 
he  that  is  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
greater  than  he.”  This  is  wdiat  Peter  meant 
when  he  WTote,  “The  Spirit  testified  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should 
follow.” 

What  we  call  the  Christian  experience  has  a 
greater  content  since  Pentecost.  It  has  a 
distinctly  stated  epochal  character.  The  whole 
second  blessing  propaganda  in  all  the  denom¬ 
inations  has  sprung  from  misinterpretation  just 
here.  It  has  not  discerned  the  epochal  variation 
brought  with  Pentecost.  To  the  evangelized 
generation  living  through  the  transition  it 
might  be  truly  said  there  came  to  them  a  second 
blessing,  an  enlargement  of  what  they  had. 
With  every  one  coming  later,  the  God  revealing 
was,  as  from  the  beginning,  always  unitary. 
“Though  the  apostles  before  the  Pentecost  were 
holy  after  the  less  perfect  dispensation  of  Moses, 
and  so  heirs  of  heaven,  it  was  by  this  out¬ 
pouring  that  they  wTere  wrought  to  the  higher 
and  doubtless  highest  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit.”  What  Doctor  Daniel  Whedon  has  so 
well  written  of  the  apostles  is  the  succinct 
statement  of  the  situation  affecting  every 
genuine  Jewish  convert  happening  to  live  during 
the  current  Pentecost  generation.  They  learned 
the  way  of  God  more  perfectly.  Speaking 


AN  UNCONVERTED  PREACHER  215 


popularly,  to  them  it  was  a  second  blessing. 
Making  it  the  standard  for  all  time  and  all 
men  can  lead  to  nothing  but  unrest. 

The  Christian  experience  as  to  the  Scriptures 
is  fundamentally  unitary.  It  is  never  bisected 
except  at  needless  cost.  The  matter  is  clearly 
stated  by  Docter  W.  F.  Tillett,1  of  Vanderbilt 
University,  in  the  following  language:  “Per¬ 
sonal  salvation  is  not  so  much  a  complex  thing 
or  a  compound  thing,  or  many  things,  as  it  is 
one  thing.  Spiritual  life  manifests  itself  in  many 
ways,  but  it  is  essentially  in  itself  a  unit.” 
“Not  diversity  but  unity  therefore  is  the  great 
law,  the  fundamental  principle  of  spiritual 
life.”  “Repentance,  faith,  righteousness,  son- 
ship,  holiness,  are  not  so  much  different  things 
which  together  constitute  salvation  as  they  are 
different  ways  of  looking  at  or  setting  forth  one 
and  the  self  same  thing — spiritual  life.”  “Per¬ 
sonal  salvation  is  divinely  imparted  spiritual 
life,  and  this,  as  we  have  seen,  is  an  indivisible 
unit,  not  a  compound  of  many  things.”  “If 
it  be  true  therefore  that  the  Bible  warrants 
the  foregoing  analysis  of  salvation  into  distinct 
and  separate  elements,  it  is  also  true  that  the 
Bible  in  many  places  utterly  ignores  its  own 
distinctions  and  speaks  now  of  repentance  as  if 

1  Personal  Salvation,  Lamar  &  Barton,  agents,  publishers,  Nashville; 

Term. 


216 


SENT  FORTH 


it  were  the  whole  of  salvation,  and  now  again 
of  faith  as  if  it  were  the  whole  of  salvation,  and 
now  again  of  righteousness,  or  regeneration,  or 
holiness,  as  if  they  were  severally  the  essence 
of  salvation.”  “Holiness  is  not  so  much  an 
element  of  salvation,  or  a  special  experience  of 
some  of  the  saved,  as  it  is  religion  itself;  it  is 
but  another  designation  of  personal  salvation 
which,  though  manifold,  is  yet  a  unit.” 

Of  course  the  concrete  conclusion  writes 
itself.  If  a  preacher  unconverted  may  not  rest 
content,  so  neither  may  any  man.  There  is  no 
more  vital  question  than  to  learn  the  way  of 
God  more  perfectly.  Apollos  is  an  example  for 
the  race.  Like  all  ministers,  he  runs  before  his 
ministry. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


Every  converted  man,  like  Apollos,  learns  the 
way  of  God  more  perfectly.  Conviction  inevitably 
precedes  conversion. 

It  is  a  matter  of  prime  importance  that  every 
minister  shall  have  a  clear  philosophy  of  his  moral 
world. 

No  one  whose  contributions  might  be  dropped  out 
of  the  New  Testament  would  be  so  great  a  loss  as 
Luke. 

Chapters  and  verses  are  a  comparatively  recent 
invention  as  to  the  Bible. 

There  are  hardly  more  than  one  or  two  passages  in 
the  whole  Bible  where  “conversion”  (or  any  of  its 
cognates)  means  precisely  what  we  mean  by  it 
to-day. 

Bible  conversion  is  so  dominant  a  matter  that  any 
word  used  to  express  it  means  commonly  some 
partial  phase  of  it. 

Conversion  has  perhaps  a  thousand  definitions 
in  the  Book  of  God,  and  no  one  of  them  tells  the 
whole  truth. 

Pentecost  was  the  cradle  of  an  era. 

The  Christian  experience  as  to  the  Scriptures  is 
fundamentally  unitary.  It  is  never  bisected  except 
at  needless  cost. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


EVANGELISM 

To  many  minds,  the  extensive  or  intensive 
side  of  things  is  an  academic  affair.  It  is  like 
rehearsal  of  the  play,  or  the  walking  for  exercise; 
wise  and  useful  probably,  but  negligible.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  incurably  practical.  The 
atmosphere  garments  the  planet.  Its  compo¬ 
sition  and  currents  determine  daily  life.  The 
pair  of  lungs  we  carry,  however,  is  no  less  vital. 
Do  they  not  function,  we  die.  The  garnering 
of  the  harvest  is  a  stupendous  affair.  An  ill- 
ordered  stomach  makes  it  useless.  Seeing  is 
astoundingly  a  matter  of  eyes.  The  extensive 
and  intensive  are  of  the  market  and  the  street. 

In  all  ages,  religion  has  suffered  from  its 
narrowness.  Out  in  the  world  there  are  temp¬ 
tations.  Therefore,  asceticism.  Certain  beset- 
ments  are  found  only  in  the  married  life. 
Therefore  the  monk  and  the  nun.  Piety  and 
brains  are  not  always  good  neighbors,  and 
Voltaire  could  say  that  “Ignorance  is  the 
mother  of  devotion.”  The  wrestle  of  conscience 
is  often  tortuous  and  takes  time.  Therefore,  the 
Papacy,  the  State  Church,  the  Inquisition, 

218 


EVANGELISM 


219 


Christian  Science,  and  Premillennialism.  The 
greatest  evangelist  of  recent  times  insists 
that  God  is  not  trying  to  save  the  world  as 
matters  are.  With  the  Second  Coming  things 
will  happen.  For  a  time  the  Almighty  works 
with  his  left  hand.  So  the  truth  may  be  an 
enemy  of  the  whole  truth.  As  if  God  could  be 
God  and  soldier,  waste  good  time,  wait  only  his 
own  good  pleasure. 

The  fact  is  an  evangelism  as  wide  and  deep 
as  the  world,  and  as  high  and  strong  as  God,  is 
always  needed  to  save  the  world,  or  save  God  to 
the  world.  Exactly  that,  and  nothing  less,  is 
Bible  evangelism.  God  is  never  with  us,  but 
at  his  best. 

Nothing  less  than  the  physical  universe  is  one 
of  God’s  evangelists.  “In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word.”  God  spoke  in  what  he  did.  The 
heavens  declare  his  glory.  Rain  and  fruitful 
season  are  his  witnesses.  The  lilies  of  the  field, 
the  birds  of  the  air,  the  stars  in  the  sky  are 
more  than  rhetoric.  Except  as  to  its  sin  the 
very  universe  is  evangelistic. 

The  course  of  human  events  is  evangelistic. 
Nations  have  no  souls,  but  God  takes  note  of 
nations,  tribes,  and  tongues.  For  something, 
every  people  is  a  chosen  people.  Their  times  and 
places  of  habitation  are  of  the  foresight  of  the 
Eternal. 


220 


SENT  FORTH 


“God  setteth  the  solitary  in  families.”  A 
family  has  no  soul.  All  families  attenuate  till 
lost  to  segregation,  or  fixity,  as  sand  in  the 
desert,  or  rivers  in  the  sea,  but  God  takes  note  of 
families.  Families  do  not  happen.  God  goes 
to  weddings.  He  is  never  nearer  than  at  the 
cradle.  The  temerity  with  which  men  and 
women  dictate  and  deflect  the  family  life  is  not 
one  of  the  lesser  evils  of  the  planet.  The  passion 
of  human  love  is  essentially  pious.  And  men 
and  women  are  few  who  soon  or  late  are  not 
mastered  thereby.  The  conservation  of  the 
family  has  been  of  the  mighty  mission  of 
Christendom  and  Judaism  alike.  That  mar¬ 
riages  are  not  made  in  heaven  is  one  of  the 
startling  messages  of  the  Book  of  books.  The 
ready  reflection  is  that  the  family  has  unique 
significance  in  the  earth.  It  is  another  of  God’s 
evangelists. 

The  evangelistic  economy  of  the  crowd  is  not 
to  be  forgotten.  Humanity  falls  into  races.  The 
chosen  people  were  segregated  into  tribes.  In 
the  desert  a  whole  generation  was  taught  a 
lesson  of  unity  and  solidarity.  Who  will  say  one 
inscrutable  reason  for  a  divine  permission  of  the 
Great  War  was  not  the  writing  in  blood  and 
tears  the  solidarity  of  the  human  race?  It  was 
God’s  policing  of  anarchy.  It  was  leading  to  a 
league  of  nations,  a  Washington  World  Con- 


EVANGELISM 


221 


ference.  The  bringing  together  of  the  Jews  in 
feasts  and  assemblies  was  the  cradle  of  Pente¬ 
cost.  The  three  thousand  were  so  many  mis¬ 
sionaries.  John  the  Baptist  gathered  crowds. 
Jesus  called  the  multitudes.  Our  great  inter¬ 
church  affairs  have  their  purpose.  God  sets 
his  lights  on  candlesticks,  and  his  cities  on  hills. 
The  crowd  is  of  God’s  evangels. 

Miracles  are  of  extensive  evangelism.  Men 
were  never  saved  by  them.  They  were  wrought 
that  the  earth  might  know  that  God  was  around. 
“That  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath 
power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins,  (then  saith  he  to 
the  sick  of  the  palsy,)  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed, 
and  go  into  thine  house.”  Rushing  winds  and 
tongues  of  fire  were  not  vital  matters,  while 
vital  matters  rode  upon  their  wings.  The 
attempt  to  make  bodily  healings  an  integral 
part  of  true  evangelism  will  always  fail.  They 
never  w7ere.  They  are  forever  secondary  and 
incidental. 

Another  of  God’s  evangelists  is  the  church. 
The  relative  discount  put  upon  it,  often  with  the 
best  intentions,  is  not  warranted  by  the 
Scriptures.  “The  Church  in  the  Wilderness” 
is  a  name  for  the  whole  Jewish  economy  at  one 
time.  Jesus  said  he  would  build  his  church  and 
the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  it. 
The  Holy  Spirit  sent  messages  to  the  churches. 


SENT  FORTH 


222 

The  apostles  wrote  epistles  to  the  churches. 
The  church  is  the  Church  of  God.  Heaven  is 
the  church  of  the  first  born.  Whatever  relative 
interpretation  we  may  make  of  the  church, 
it  is  forever  to  be  kept  at  a  premium  in  our 
estimate. 

The  Bible  is  one  of  God’s  evangelists.  To  be 
sure,  there  are  more  people  in  heaven  who  never 
saw  a  Bible  than  have  gone  there  by  its  teach¬ 
ings.  Also  the  world  got  on  practically  without 
a  Bible  for  two  thirds  of  its  historv.  Also  it  is 

t / 

a  small  minority  indeed  that  has  ever  been 
mastered  by  its  presence.  Nevertheless  its 
mission,  in  the  providence  of  God,  is  ever  of  the 
highest.  God  does  not  leave  his  kingdom  to 
memory  and  tradition.  It  is  also  enriched  by 
the  Book  of  books.  Moses  wrote  of  the  Son  of 
God.  The  writings  of  the  apostles  are  known  as 
Scriptures.  Holy  men  of  old  wrote  as  they 
were  moved  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Jesus  said  the 
Scriptures  testified  of  him,  and  that  in  them 
men  found  eternal  life.  The  day  of  the  Bible  is 
only  at  sunrise  among  men.  It  is  to  know  no 
night. 

With  many  the  ministry  is  supposed  to  be  a 
quarter  section  of  the  church.  It  is  wiser  to 
consider  it  as  of  itself.  The  personal  element 
forever  outranks  the  organic.  Man  as  made  in 
the  image  of  God  is  transcendent.  So  patriarchs. 


EVANGELISM 


223 


prophets,  priests,  ministers,  apostles,  evan¬ 
gelists,  teachers  are  of  God’s  right  hand.  No 
church  rightly  ordains  one  who  has  not  been 
first  ordained  of  God.  So,  however  closely  knit 
in  church  economy  the  living  ministry  may  be, 
it  has  room  of  its  own.  It  takes  orders  of  the 
Eternal. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  intensive  evangelism 
independent  of  the  extensive.  The  physical 
universe,  Providence,  the  Bible,  the  church,  the 
ministry,  in  their  measure  must  go  and  speak. 
We  know  the  soul  only  through  the  body. 
“How  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher?” 
Here  lies  the  mission  of  all  religious  machinery. 
The  speaker,  the  music,  the  crowd,  the  methods, 
all  are  preachers.  The  earthquake,  wind  and 
fire  have  their  place  and  purpose  for  the  still 
small  voice.  Intensive  evangelism  is  the  flame, 
and  light,  and  heat,  and  power,  for  which 
dynamo,  pole,  and  wire  have  being.  Intensive 
evangelism  is  the  ripe  red  fruit  for  which  tree 
and  soil,  and  sun  and  rain,  have  learned  to 
labor  and  to  wait.  Intensive  evangelism  is  that 
firing  line  where  one  man  fights  that  there  are 
six  other  men  to  get  him  there  and  have  him 
ready.  Extensive  evangelism  is  largely  ten¬ 
tative.  Intensive  evangelism  is  inevitable. 

What  vast  concerns,  for  instance,  lie  within 
the  province  of  conscience?  Noisy  Pharisees 


224 


SENT  FORTH 


wilt  and  fade  under  its  lash.  Pilate’s  wife  is 
driven  by  a  dream.  The  Gentiles  having  no 
law  are  a  law  unto  themselves.  Nicodemus, 
coming  by  night  is  at  the  lure  of  the  elemental. 
Nathanael  under  the  fig  tree,  alone,  is  seen  of 
his  Lord.  Every  man  under  the  sun,  as  if  there 
were  no  other  body  on  earth,  does  business  with 
God.  It  is  just  this  phase  of  revival  effort  that 
is  neglected  in  our  modern  day.  We  all  too 
rarely  trust  a  man  alone  with  his  conscience. 
The  conviction  a  man  can  shake  off  will  not 
often  convert  him.  It  may  get  him  up  the 
sawdust  trail,  or  to  some  altar,  or  to  join  some 
church,  or  even  to  turn  wonderfully  fussy  at 
religion.  It  will  rarely  get  him  converted.  No 
man  gets  converted  till  he  is  mastered,  till  in 
his  heart  J esus  is  Lord,  till  he  is  born  again,  born 
of  God.  All  too  many  Christians  are  living 
without  life.  The  way  good  people  can  keep 
deaf  and  dumb  and  blind  with  God  Almighty 
in  their  souls  is  ominous.  They  look  so  dead. 
The  great  masses  of  all  New-Testament  con¬ 
verts,  till  Gentilism  was  invaded,  were  profes¬ 
sedly  good  people.  When  the  train  load  of 
soldier  laddies  pulled  away  the  bands  were  wont 
to  play  that  they  might  not  think  too  much.  In 
evangelism  that  is  not  good  ethics.  To  stand 
in  the  presence  of  God  is  a  thing  to  think  about : 
with  foot  unshod  and  head  uncovered.  “The 


EVANGELISM  225 

ground  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy 
ground.” 

Intensive  evangelism  finds  its  play  in  personal 
work.  It  is  a  battle  where  one  fights  it  out  with 
himself,  and  where  he  fights  it  often  with 
another.  There  is  usually  none  but  the  most 
elemental  work  on  hand  when  it  is  one  and  one. 
The  Scripture  word  about  the  two  or  three 
gathering  together  in  one  sacred  name  is  hardly 
intended  for  small  meetings  that  justly  should 
be  big.  It  is,  rather,  a  sermon  on  the  worth  of 
small  meetings  that  justly  should  stay  small. 
“Adam,  where  art  thou?”  “David,  king  of 
Israel,  thou  art  the  man.”  “Nicodemus,  a  man 
must  be  born  again.”  “Woman  of  Samaria, 
thou  hast  had  five  husbands,  and  he  whom 
thou  now  hast  is  not  thy  husband.”  The  one 
hundred  and  twenty,  and  the  three  thousand, 
and  the  five  thousand,  were  named  as  being 
each  one  worth  counting.  The  eunuch,  the 
jailer,  Lydia,  Cornelius,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  Apollos, 
the  twelve  charter  members  at  Ephesus  all 
emphasize  the  asset  there  is  in  one  man.  The 
decay  of  testimony,  anywhere,  is  a  sign  of  an 
underrating  of  one  man- values. 

Intensive  evangelism  is  illustrated  in  the 
local  church.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the 
interdenominational,  commonwealth,  munic¬ 
ipal  idea  in  evangelism  is  overdone.  The  tie 


226 


SENT  FORTH 


is  too  loose.  The  talking  about  tilings;  the 
crush  of  inexpert  committees;  the  crowd  instead 
of  the  Christ;  the  meeting  as  against  its  purpose; 
the  battle  against  time;  the  hoarse,  wornout, 
professionalized  evangelist — if  the  local  church 
would  stand  or  fall  with  a  genuine  revival, 
much  of  these  artificial  weaknesses  would  be 
avoided,  and  the  real  task  would  be  better 
done.  “Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by 
my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord.” 

Intensive  evangelism  finds  its  play  in  an 
insistence  upon  a  satisfying,  mastering,  indi¬ 
vidual  experience.  John  the  Baptist  had  great 
crowds,  an  ecclesiastical  machine,  a  ritual,  a 
system  of  ethics,  a  concrete  purpose  and 
mission.  They  were  each  and  all  but  heralds 
to  the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
children  of  Abraham  might  all  stay  vipers  did 
they  stop  short  of  the  fan  and  flame.  Our 
modern  day  saves  its  face  by  insisting  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  an  annex  to  conversion,  a 
baptism  for  service,  a  reconsecration,  an  entire 
sanctification,  as  against  something  immature 
and  partial.  In  the  New  Testament  the  Spirit 
baptism,  gift,  indwelling,  birth,  witness,  are 
primary,  fundamental,  vital.  “If  any  man  have 
not  the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his.” 
The  evangelistic  peril  of  our  day  is  a  Christen¬ 
dom  quite  content  with  the  baptism  of  John. 


EVANGELISM 


227 


We  are  told  that  as  Jesus  held  true  to  this  high 
ideal  of  evangelism,  “Many  of  his  disciples  went 
back,  and  walked  no  more  with  him.”  They 
did  not  slide  back.  They  went  back.  When 
loaves  and  fishes  ran  out,  when  the  Rabbi 
would  not  be  ruler,  when  a  profound  experience 
within,  and  self-denying  service  without,  was 
mandatory,  they  went  back.  Jesus  was  not 
sure  even  of  his  twelve  apostles.  They  might 
also  go  away.  One  of  them  did.  Apollos  got 
converted.  Judas  never  did.  We  follow  either 
Judas  or  Apollos.  “And  I  saw  there  was  a 
way  to  hell  from  the  very  gates  of  heaven.” 
In  any  age  there  is  nothing  to  take  the  place  of 
being,  getting,  keeping  right  with  God.  To 
churn  up  large  enthusiasm  over  anything  else 
is  to  miss  entirely  the  Bible  emphasis.  To 
specialize  religion  is  to  belittle  it.  It  is  of  the 
warp  and  woof  of  life;  woven  without  seam. 
Here  is  the  intensive  evangelism. 

The  practical  lessons  drawn  from  this  survey 
of  evangelism  are  voluminous.  The  physical 
universe,  Providence  “miracles”  the  empires  of 
men,  the  church,  the  Bible,  the  ministry, 
as  God’s  evangelists,  is  an  enormous  beginning 
to  our  thinking.  That  they  end  nowhere  and 
never  but  at  the  complete,  willing,  joyous 
surrender  of  the  soul  to  the  will  of  God,  or  its 
wandering  into  a  hopeless  night,  gives  life  its 


228 


SENT  FORTH 


significance,  its  terror,  its  delight.  It  is  good¬ 
ness,  not  evil,  that  has  the  run  of  the  house. 
Sin  is  sneak  and  porch-climber  in  the  earth. 
How  could  a  minister  be  put  to  it  for  something 
to  say,  and  how  be  other  than  aggressive,  how 
be  ignorant,  narrow  or  conventional?  Life  is 
so  eloquent,  alarming,  kindly,  all  the  Lord’s 
people  would  be  prophets,  it  would  seem.  And 
here  is  one  asleep  on  the  top  of  a  mast. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


The  truth  may  be  the  enemy  of  the  whole  truth. 
That  we  are  the  people  and  wisdom  will  die  with  us 
is  an  unlikely  proposition  in  any  age.  The  modesty 
of  ignorance  is  forever  a  desirable  virtue. 

An  evangelism  as  wide  and  deep  as  the  world,  and 
as  high  and  strong  as  God,  is  always  needed  to  save 
the  world,  or  save  God  to  the  world.  Exactly  that 
is  Bible  evangelism. 

A  family  has  no  soul.  All  families  attenuate  till 
lost  to  segregation  or  fixity  as  sand  in  the  desert  or 
rivers  in  the  sea.  Yet  God  takes  note  of  families. 
Families  do  not  happen.  “God  setteth  the  solitary 
in  families.” 

The  attempt  to  make  bodily  healings  an  integral 
part  of  true  evangelism  will  always  fail.  They 
never  were.  They  are  forever  secondary,  temporary, 
and  incidental. 

The  conviction  a  man  can  shake  off  will  rarely 
convert  him.  To  be  converted  is  to  be  mastered. 

The  way  good  people  can  keep  deaf,  and  dumb, 
and  blind,  with  God  Almighty  in  their  souls,  is 
ominous.  They  look  so  dead. 

When  the  trainloads  of  soldier  laddies  pulled  away, 
the  bands  were  wont  to  play  that  they  might  not 
think  too  much.  In  evangelism  that  is  not  good 
ethics. 

The  evangelistic  peril  of  our  day  is  a  Christendom 
quite  content  with  the  baptism  of  John. 


229 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL 

The  gospel  of  Jesus  did  not  end  when  he  was 
dead.  It  did  not  end  with  his  ascending.  It  did 
not  even  end  with  Pentecost.  It  did  not  end 
with  the  third  heavens  that  Paul  saw.  It  did 
not  end  with  the  wonder  of  Patmos.  It  did  not 
end  with  a  unified  Bible.  It  did  not  end  with  a 
diversified  church.  It  does  not  end  with 
political,  social,  economic,  comfort  in  the  earth. 
It  does  not  end  with  democracy.  It  ends  only 
when  men  are  guided  into  all  truth.  While  they 
can  bear  them,  and  as  they  can  bear  them,  Jesus 
has  things  to  say.  He  said  there  were  many 
things.  It  looks  suspiciously  as  if  a  matter  like 
that  might  be  immortal.  “Of  his  kingdom  there 
shall  be  no  end.”  The  glory  of  sunrise  has  a 
fame  with  men,  because  their  eves  can  take  it  in. 
The  blaze  of  noon  is  blinding.  With  better  eyes 
we  may  one  day  see  the  dawn  has  business  only 
as  it  leads  to  day.  The  gospel  of  Jesus  did  not 
end  when  he  was  dead. 

Unwittingly  the  incarnate  Jesus  is  with  quite 
too  many  the  enemy  of  the  real  Jesus.  The  Son 
of  man  shadows  the  Son  of  God.  That  the 

230 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  231 


Nazarene  went  away,  sorrow  filled  the  hearts 
of  his  best  friends.  That  he  stays  away, 
his  religion  is  a  memory  to  millions.  That  he 
comes  again  is  confessedly  the  only  substantial 
hope  of  the  great  and  good  in  pitifully  surprising 
numbers.  Their  name  is  Thomas.  They  will 
believe,  but  only  with  the  print  of  the  nail. 

“I  think  when  I  read  that  sweet  story  of  old, 

When  Jesus  w~as  here  among  men. 

How  he  took  little  children  as  lambs  to  his  fold; 

I  should  like  to  have  been  with  him  then.” 

Did  the  sentiment,  sweet  to  tears,  end  with 
the  music,  one  might  wait  in  silence.  But  with  a 
better  Jesus  just  here,  his  hand  on  our  head, 
and  his  peace  unspeakable  at  heart  of  us,  it  is 
not  far  from  waste.  A  Jesus  one  worships  is 
surely  nearer  than  a  Jesus  one  remembers.  A 
Jesus  who  opens  the  holy  writings  till  our 
hearts  burn  within  us  is  not  a  Jesus  whose 
absence  is  to  be  mourned.  A  Jesus  whose  going 
away  is  more  expedient  than  his  abiding  should 
be  taken  at  his  word,  to  an  end  of  distress.  The 
real  man  is  the  man  of  the  soul.  The  real 
Jesus  is  the  Divine  One,  to  whom  the  incarna¬ 
tion  was  an  incident  and  the  historic  gospel  a 
phase  of  the  passing  years.  Time  and  space  and 
circumstance  have  a  way  of  fading,  does  one 
walk  with  God.  v 


232 


SENT  FORTH 


The  Jesus  of  the  resurrection  is  the  abiding 
Jesus.  The  supposedly  nine  times  he  appeared 
before  the  ascension  were,  every  one  of  them, 
matters  of  choice.  The  normal  Jesus  is  the 
hidden  Jesus.  His  appearance  to  Saul  of 
Tarsus  was  a  choice.  His  appearance  to  John  in 
Patmos  was  his  choice.  Should  he  unmistak¬ 
ably  appear  again,  it  would  be  that  he  so 
chooses.  It  will  be  his  joy  to  appear  at  the 
climax  of  all  ages,  the  end  of  the  world.  The 
Jesus  of  the  resurrection  is  our  Jesus.  We 
worship  him  as  did  those  who  saw  him  with 
their  physical  eyes.  Our  hearts  burn  as  he 
talks  to  us  by  the  way,  even  as  it  was  with  the 
travelers  to  Emmaus.  He  sends  us  about  our 
duties  as  he  directed  Peter  to  feed  the  lambs. 
He  orders  our  lives  as  he  willed  that  John  should 
tarry  till  he  came.  If,  like  the  son  of  Jonas,  we 
glorify  God  by  dying,  or,  like  the  son  of  Zebe- 
dee,  we  tarry  to  meet  him  at  some  Patmos, 
it  is  his  affair.  He  cared  whether  his  children 
had  any  meat.  He  is  not  careless  that  we  dine. 
As  he  knew  Mary  and  stilled  her  weeping  he 
quiets  us.  As  peace  was  in  his  sending  of  his 
disciples  so  our  way  of  duty  is  the  way  of 
blessing.  It  is  a  loss  immeasurable  when  good 
men  shade  their  sense  of  an  ever-living  Christ 
for  a  dream  of  a  Christ  to  come.  Not  rarely 
they  lose  their  vision  of  any  Christ.  It  is  neither 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  233 


in  a  mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem  that  men 
worship  God.  “God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that 
worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.”  Adventism  is  a  ready  road  to  ruin,  a 
Bypath  Meadow,  for  pilgrims  not  a  few.  The 
gospel  of  Jesus  did  not  end  when  he  was  dead. 

If  anything  is  plain  in  Scripture,  it  is  that 
Pentecost,  and  the  things  it  stands  for,  was 
speech  of  Jesus.  In  some  farreaching  sense 
Pentecost  could  not  be,  the  Holy  Spirit  could 
not  come,  till  Jesus  went  away.  “If  I  go  not 
away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you; 
but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him  unto  you.” 
“I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water,  but  he  shall 
baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
fire.”  “This  Jesus  hath  shed  forth  this  which  ye 
now  see  and  hear.”  The  Posthumous  Gospel 
includes  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
deity  of  Jesus  Christ  has  no  credential  to  sur¬ 
pass  it.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  famous. 
The  Sermon  of  the  Tapper  Room  is  yet  more 
famous.  The  Sermon  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
immortal. 

This  compelling  generalization  is  in  no  sense 
a  matter  of  inference  or  discovery.  It  is  a 
simple  Scripture  statement.  “I  will  not  leave 
you  comfortless;  I  will  come  to  you.”  “The  Son 
of  God  is  come.”  “He  shall  not  speak  of 
himself;  ...  he  shall  glorify  me:  for  he  shall 


234 


SENT  FORTH 


receive  of  mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto  you.” 
‘ 4  They  took  knowledge  of  them  that  they 
had  been  with  Jesus.”  “When  it  pleased  God 
to  reveal  his  Son  in  me,  immediately  I  conferred 
not  with  flesh  and  blood.”  The  gospel  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  The  accent 
of  the  last  half  century  on  the  terminology  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  brought  no  new  thing  whatever. 
It  simply  deepened,  widened,  flew,  the  gospel 
of  God  which  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  “I  am  he 
that  liveth,  and  was  dead;  and,  behold,  I  am 
alive  forever  more.  Amen.”  The  things  men 
could  not  bear  when  Jesus  was  on  the  earth, 
matters  reaching  the  limits  of  all  truth,  are  to  be 
uncovered  under  the  sun  forever.  The  gospel  of 
Jesus  was  not  completed  with  his  historic  life. 
He  preaches  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  revelation  of  Patmos  is  of  the  Posthumous 
Gospel.  The  voice  John  heard  behind  him,  as 
the  voice  of  many  waters,  was  the  voice  of 
Jesus.  As  he  appeared  to  his  disciples  after  the 
resurrection,  even  to  five  hundred  brethren  at 
one  time,  so  now  he  speaks  again  to  the  son  of 
Zebedee.  The  marvelous  imagery  of  the 
Apocalypse  should  not  blind  us  to  the  literal 
truth  that  the  Son  of  God  once  more  revealed 
himself.  It  is  probable  that  the  wealth  of  the 
unusual  was  for  the  very  purpose  of  confirming 
the  reality  of  the  supernatural  spiritual  world. 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  235 


It  is  unmistakably  a  different  world.  No  wiser 
way  seems  open  than  to  give  it  a  different,  if 
astounding,  expression.  Eyes  as  flames  of  fire, 
voices  as  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  candlesticks 
and  stars,  seals,  vials,  great  beasts,  the  sea  of 
glass,  the  mighty  book,  the  new  song,  all  speak 
another  world  of  higher  commanding  order.  To 
believe  that  just  exactly  these  things  are  to  be 
seen  and  heard,  or  have  been  seen  and  heard,  in 
this  world  or  any  other,  is  neither  vital  nor  nec¬ 
essary.  They  simply  tell  the  spiritual  realities 
they  stand  for  are  on  hand,  and  will  never  pass. 
That  God  is  here  with  us,  his  name  Immanuel, 
is  the  delightful  inescapable  thing.  Though  we 
touch  but  the  hem  of  his  garment,  we  are  at 
peace.  The  particular  games  of  the  kinder¬ 
garten  we  are  glad  to  forget  with  maturing 
years.  Whatever  was  the  lesson,  the  veritable 
fact,  we  grapple  to  with  hooks  of  steel,  though 
grown  as  wise  as  Solomon.  No  one  knows  when 
any  true  thing  may  become  significant.  Odds 
and  ends  not  rarely  save  lives,  and  fortunes,  and 
the  future.  The  Apocalypse  assuredly  often 
seems  odds  and  ends  at  our  human  stage  of 
learning.  It  is  as  assuredly  another  chapter  of 
the  Posthumous  Gospel  of  Jesus,  the  gospel  of 
our  God. 

Christian  scholarship  has  never  failed  to  be 
impressed  with  the  unshaken  sense  of  the 


236 


SENT  FORTH 


supernatural  Jesus  in  the  apostle  Paul.  Con¬ 
senting  to  the  death  of  Stephen,  breathing  out 
threatenings  and  slaughter  against  the  disciples 
of  the  Lord,  waxing  exceeding  mad  against 
anything  Christian,  he  became  a  veritable 
pillar  of  the  faith.  He  never  wearied  in  insisting 
that  he  had  seen  the  Lord,  the  Son  of  God,  not 
only  on  the  Damascus  road,  but  repeatedly. 
“I  certify  you,  brethren,  that  the  gospel  which 
was  preached  of  me  is  not  after  man,  for  I 
neither  received  it  of  man,  nor  was  I  taught  it, 
but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.”  “The 
things  which  I  write  unto  you,  behold,  before 
God,  I  lie  not.”  “Lest  I  should  be  exalted 
above  measure  through  the  abundance  of  the 
revelations,  there  was  given  to  me  a  thorn  in 
the  flesh,  the  messenger  of  Satan,  to  buffet  me.” 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  whole 
ministry  of  Paul  is  of  the  Posthumous  Gospel 
of  his  Lord.  To  be  his  bond  slave  was  more  than 
rhetoric  with  him.  Though  as  one  born  out  of 
due  time,  he  had  the  same  full  message  of  all 
the  other  apostles.  We  get  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
from  the  story  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  as  assuredly 
and  authoritatively  as  from  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John.  The  earth  was  getting  able  to 
bear,  and  it  had. 

The  saying  of  Jesus  that  he  would  build  his 
church  very  plainly  indicates  that  it  also  is  of 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  237 


the  Posthumous  Gospel.  In  plain  words,  the 
church  is  not  a  product  but  a  process.  The 
mighty  Master  Builder  is  daily  at  its  finishing. 
The  common  supposition  that  did  we  know 
exactly  what  the  situation  was  in  New  Tes¬ 
tament  times,  we  would  have  our  model  is 
hardly  the  case.  We  would  assume  no  later 
development,  would  antagonize  or  nullify  the 
foundations  laid.  We  may  also  assume  that  all 
future  buildings  are  to  be  frankly  on  these 
foundations.  Beyond  that,  the  hand  we  trust 
for  what  is  written,  may  be  trusted  for  all  that 
is  to  come.  No  one  doubts  the  great  missionary 
activities  are  the  will  of  the  Master  Builder.  The 
Sunday  school  is  no  interloper.  The  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association,  The  Woman’s 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  The  Salvation 
Army,  and  like  projections,  are  not  outside  but 
of  the  church.  It  is  likely  that  much  good 
breath  and  time  have  been  wasted  in  bewailing 
denominationalism.  Some  of  these  various 
units  may  have  been  born  of  folly.  Many  of 
them  are  distinctly  of  the  Lord.  As  things 
appear,  variety  is  of  the  divine  order  of  the 
world,  and  why  should  the  Church  of  God 
be  an  exception?  The  pyramids  of  Egypt  were 
the  outcome  of  an  architect’s  plan,  and  have 
stood  complete  for  centuries.  Any  change  was 
disintegration  and  decay.  Except  for  their  age 


238 


SENT  FORTH 


and  massiveness  their  glory  is  of  the  dead. 
They  are  tombs.  Such  is  not  the  Church  of 
God.  It  is  forever  new  as  being  forever  in 
construction.  Its  glory  is  to  come.  It  does  not 
shrine  the  dead.  It  is  speech  of  Jesus  the  Son 
of  God,  a  section  of  his  Posthumous  Gospel. 

Who  can  doubt  a  unified  Bible  is  of  the 
Posthumous  Gospel  of  Jesus?  It  surely  did 
not  reach  the  earth  till  Jesus  was  dead.  It 
carries  his  message.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  any 
reason  for  delay  in  its  arrival  than  that  men 
were  not  readv  for  it.  There  is  no  louder, 
sweeter  voice  under  the  sun,  now  that  it  is  here. 
If  a  guiding  into  all  truth  is  the  horoscope  of 
the  race,  the  unified  Bible  must  have  and  hold 
its  place,  as  of  the  deathless  gospel  of  our  Lord. 
Though  men  are  not  yet  ready  to  bear  its  mes¬ 
sage,  they  do  bear  its  presence,  and  that 
interprets  its  coming.  It  is  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  after  he  was  dead.  It  is  of  the  many 
things  he  could  not  say  while  living. 

A  true  perspective  of  the  whole  Bible  problem 
is,  from  its  immensity,  concretely  impossible. 
Vastly  more  souls  now  in  heaven  never  saw  the 
Bible  than  any  other  kind  or  sort.  It  is  a 
rarity  or  novelty  after  fifteen  centuries  to  the 
great  majority  of  men  on  earth.  With  those  to 
whom  it  is  handy  it  is  a  terra  incognita  beyond 
anything  else.  The  Christian  Church  was 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  239 


securely  anchored  in  the  harbor  of  the  world’s 
heart  without  it.  It  is  a  solvent  of  earthly  ills 
beyond  anything  other  when  honestly  applied. 
The  New- Testament  story  was  enacted  and 
reported  almost  entirely  under  help  only  of  the 
Old  Testament. 

The  printed  Bible  is  but  beginning  its  career. 
Two  thousand  years  knew  little  other  Word  of 
God  but  a  written  Word  of  God.  The  most 
utterly  divergent  cults  and  theologies  base 
themselves  upon  the  same  Bible.  It  is  the  most 
popular  and  the  most  neglected  volume  under 
the  sun.  It  is  the  despair  and  hope  of  the  human 
race.  Similar  things  might  be  truly  said  well- 
nigh  at  will.  We  understand  why  it  waited  till 
it  might  be  borne.  It  is  borne  but  poorly  now. 
In  any  absolute  sense  a  gospel  of  God  will 
forever  be  beyond  its  bearing. 

Broadly  interpreted,  the  progress  of  the 
human  race  may  be  written  in  that  happily 
prevalent  word  “democracy.”  The  rule  of  the 
people  is  the  destiny  of  the  planet.  We  can 
see  no  sufficient  reason  for  the  earth  but  its 
inhabitants.  It  may  not  be  capable  of  proof, 
but  a  universe  for  anything  other  than  men,  or 
similar  intelligences,  is  nowhere  on  the  horizon. 
At  any  rate,  neither  angels  nor  devils  have  ever 
been  other  than  transients  under  the  sun,  while 
men  are  forever  at  home.  We  may  infer  and 


240 


SENT  FORTH 


assume  the  future  from  the  past.  Culture  and 
discipline  have  been  the  especial  affair  of 
humanity.  The  call  of  the  wild  is  never 
silenced  but  at  the  will  of  man.  A  month’s 
vacation  and  the  dust  has  gathered  in  a  distinct 
layer  in  the  most  fleckless  room.  The  grave¬ 
digger  has  been  filling  in.  The  white  soul  made 
in  the  image  of  God  was  set  at  gardening,  dress¬ 
ing,  and  keeping  what  would  not  keep  itself. 
Eden  is  a  wilderness  where  men  do  not  come  by. 
Wealth  is  unknown  except  of  men.  The 
squirrel  gathers  his  store  for  winter,  not  to  have 
and  to  hold.  Only  men  are  artists  or  inventors. 
Only  men  fight  any  considerable  conscious 
battle  with  mortality.  Only  men  contend  with 
ignorance,  poverty,  discontent,  or  sin.  War, 
slavery,  dissipation,  greed,  cruelty,  and  lust 
have  been  the  evil  monopoly  of  man,  and  their 
overthrow  his  strife.  The  earth  is  the  home  of 
its  citizens.  Kings,  oppressors,  autocrats, 
tyrants,  the  proud  and  selfish,  drift  to  the  rear 
in  the  onward  march  of  men. 

What  may  all  this  be  but  that  neighborhood 
is  the  will  of  God  and  the  true  genius  of  the 
race?  No  teacher  of  men  ever  led  his  fellows  to 
this  light  like  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Could  the 
earth  have  borne  it,  an  Emancipation  Procla¬ 
mation  would  not  have  waited  for  Abraham 
Lincoln.  When  slavery  dies  it  must  stay  dead. 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  241 


Sober  men  have  not  been  few  in  all  the  ages. 
A  sober  world  must  keep  its  feet  forever. 
Comfort  and  quiet  are  rights  of  the  race.  For 
the  race  to  get  and  keep  them  the  struggle  must 
be  more  than  overnight.  The  only  utter  safety 
under  the  sun  is  holiness,  and  holiness  is  never 
bought,  nor  hired,  nor  inherited,  nor  found. 
Holiness  is  dug  and  fought  for.  The  fall  of  one 
holy  pair  deflected  long  ages.  The  fall  of  a  holy 
world  would  be  irreparable.  To  save  from  sin 
takes  more  than  fiat.  A  heaven  of  the  unwilling 
is  no  heaven.  The  Saviour  of  men  saves  no 
more  slowly  than  he  must.  He  has  many 
things  to  say,  but  will  not  risk  their  waste. 

As  men  may  bear  them  he  will  speak.  His 
Holy  Spirit  will  guide  into  all  truth,  as  all  truth 
will  bring  forth  fruit.  Every  sure  and  solid  step 
the  earth  takes  forward  is  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
after  he  was  dead.  It  is  a  saying  that  finally 
the  earth  can  bear.  It  is  of  the  Posthumous 
Gospel. 

The  story  of  the  ages  is  written  black  with 
gospels  that  are  not  gospels.  Jewish  disciples 
of  Jesus  could  see  the  future  only  in  making 
their  Master  a  King.  With  less  than  twenty 
centuries  making  kings  disreputable,  to  whom 
would  the  earth  now  say  its  prayers?  An 
apostle  drew  his  sword  and  cut,  and  crippled, 
and  shed  blood,  that  the  preaching  might  not  be 


242 


SENT  FORTH 


hindered.  With  the  round  world  sure  there  is  no 
future  to  sharp  edges,  ashamed  of  its  crusades 
and  inquisitions,  proud  of  its  Washington 
disarmament,  a  Master  of  Swords  would  have 
small  standing.  The  Jesus  who  cures  where 
other  men  cut  is  still  here.  The  good  people 
who  set  the  preacher  above  the  prince  did  it 
at  their  prayers.  The  plight  of  the  Holy 
Father  is  not  encouraging.  The  Jesus  of  Rome 
is  having  trouble  at  being  the  Jesus  of  a  world. 
The  utterly  certain  saints  who  would  have 
Israel  master  at  Jerusalem  have  been  in  mourn¬ 
ing  long  centuries.  Had  Jesus  joined  their 
company,  he  would  have  shared  their  grief. 

Of  exactly  the  same  sort  is  the  modern 
gazing  into  heaven  for  a  Lord  that  can  be  seen. 
The  processes  of  preaching  and  faith  take  too 
much  patience  and  disappointment.  Salva¬ 
tion  must  be  made  compelling.  Had  religion 
by  edict  been  wise  in  any  age,  it  was  surely 
folly  to  wait  at  all.  The  ways  of  God  with 
men  cannot  be  justified  if  he  has  done  less  than 
his  most  and  best  at  any  moment.  All  fault 
must  be  with  the  faulty.  That  as  men  can 
bear  they  are  given  the  truth,  is  the  outer  edge 
of  all  Omnipotence.  To  look  and  linger  and 
mourn  for  more  is  to  impeach  the  wisdom  of  the 
Wise.  The  Son  of  God  did  not  trust  his  gospel 
of  three  short  years  to  save  the  ages.  He  did 


THE  POSTHUMOUS  GOSPEL  243 


consider  that  with  his  gospel  after  he  was  dead 
it  would  be  invincible.  The  world  is  poor  that 
it  has  not  always  remembered  the  Posthumous 
Gospel. 


BLUE  MONDAY 


The  gospel  of  Jesus  did  not  end  when  he  was  dead. 
There  were  many  things  the  world  could  not  yet 
bear. 

The  religion  of  Jesus  to  many  is  a  religion  of 
memory.  To  other  millions  it  is  a  religion  of  a  hope. 
It  is  no  religion  at  all  if  not  a  religion  of  to-day. 

It  is  a  poor  bargain  to  trade  an  ever-living  Christ 
for  a  Christ  to  come.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is 
famous.  The  Sermon  of  the  Upper  Room  is  pro¬ 
phetic.  The  Sermon  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  immortal. 

The  accent  of  the  last  half  century  on  the  ter¬ 
minology  of  the  Holy  Spirit  brought  no  new  thing 
whatever.  It  simply  deepened,  widened,  flew  the 
gospel  of  God,  which  is  the  gospel  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

The  particular  games  of  the  kindergarten  we  forget 
with  maturing  years.  Their  lessons  we  grapple  to 
with  hooks  of  steel. 

No  man  knows  when  any  true  thing  will  become 
significant.  Lives  and  fortunes  and  the  future  are 
at  the  mercy  of  odds  and  ends. 

The  Church  of  God  was  never  a  product  but  a 
process.  To  complain  till  one  sees  how  it  turns  out 
is  to  be  nearsighted. 

The  Bible  is  the  most  popular  and  the  most 
neglected  volume  under  the  sun.  It  is  the  despair 
and  the  hope  of  the  human  race. 

There  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  the  planet  except 
its  citizens.  It  is  prey  to  the  call  of  the  wild. 

Every  sure  and  solid  step  the  earth  takes  onward 
is  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  after  he  was  dead. 


244 


CHAPTER  XX 
OVER  THE  BORDER 

A  minister  dumb  as  to  human  destiny  is 
waste  of  room.  A  deifying  of  the  passing  day, 
a  swift  decay  of  evangelism,  a  peril  to  all 
Christendom  is  in  a  tentative  hold  on  the  last 
things.  Hope  and  Fear  bowed  out  of  human 
thinking  leave  a  chasm  vast  and  ominous.  The 
vogue  and  magic  of  the  Nazar ene  are  much 
that  he  has  words  to  say  of  the  long  To-morrow. 
Men  suspect  that  the  Bible  is  the  voice  of  God; 
that  it  is  a  message  of  other  worlds.  Do  we 
pray,  it  is  to  the  Father  in  heaven.  Called  to 
be  citizens,  it  is  in  a  kingdom  of  heaven.  The 
righteous  man  is  heir  of  a  life  eternal.  He  that 
works  iniquity  goes  away  into  an  outer  darkness. 
Things  that  offend  are  cast  into  a  furnace  of 
fire.  “And  the  ruin  of  that  house  was  great.” 
In  the  shadows  and  the  light,  mortals  are  made 
to  know^  that  dying  they  live  again.  Mighty 
contingencies  beyond  the  grave  are  integral 
elements  of  all  revealed  religion.  The  prophet 
doubtful  of  a  far-flung  future  may  be  no  longer 
prophet. 

In  each  and  every  circumstance  where  hu¬ 
man  destiny  is  unfolded  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 

245 


246 


SENT  FORTH 


some  larger  vision  explaining  its  advent  will 
appear.  Any  full  survey  is  discouraged  by  their 
wealth  and  wTide  extent.  Assuming  that  in 
nothing  vital  do  these  unmated  records  disa¬ 
gree,  we  select  among  them  the  tale  of  the  rich 
man  and  the  beggar  as  our  worthy  guide  to  the 
purpose  in  hand.  It  will  be  found  at  once  sug¬ 
gestive  and  sufficient. 

Our  evident  presupposition  that  men  are 
immortal,  and,  even  if  desirable,  never  cease 
to  live,  is  at  the  door  of  this  significant  story. 
The  beggar  carried  of  angels  might  well  have 
thought  that  he  was  only  beginning  to  live. 
The  rich  man  was  never  so  alive  as  when  he 
was  dead.  That  after  death  men  live,  tragi¬ 
cally,  gloriously,  live,  is  at  once  the  terror  and 
the  triumph  of  the  tale.  It  is  the  more  star¬ 
tling  that,  aside  from  the  ancient  accepted 
teaching,  there  is  no  concept  so  scripturally 
plausible  as  that  the  determinedly  wicked 
finally  cease  to  be.  That  the  man  of  faith 
comes  to  an  everlasting  life  has  no  more  think¬ 
able  antithesis  than  a  cessation  of  life  an  ever¬ 
lasting  death.  A  day  that  bums  as  an  oven, 
that  finds  the  proud  as  stubble,  that  leaves 
them  neither  root  nor  branch,  sounds  exactly 
like  the  thing  it  says.  When  the  righteous 
scarcely  are  saved,  where  indeed  might  the 
sinner  and  the  ungodly  appear? 


OVER  THE  BORDER 


247 


Nevertheless,  if  the  Scriptures  are  to  be 
interpreted  as  a  whole,  and  consistently,  there 
is  no  apparent  escape  from  the  old-time  belief 
that  righteous  and  wicked  alike  live  forever, 
whether  happy  or  despairing.  “And  these 
shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment:  but 
the  righteous  into  life  eternal.”  ‘kind  who¬ 
soever  was  not  found  written  in  the  book  of 
life  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.”  “For  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death;  but  the  gift  of  God  is 
eternal  life.”  “And  I  saw  the  dead,  both  small 
and  great,  stand  before  God.”  The  passages 
seeming  to  say  extinction  cannot  stand  against 
the  multitude  that  declare,  with  any  character, 
men  live,  and  die,  and  live  again,  forever. 
Destruction  and  ruin  are  the  more  terrible  that 
they  do  not  kill.  It  is  the  pitiableness  of 
nervous  collapse,  insomnia,  and  kindred  ail¬ 
ments,  that  one  does  not  escape  from  himself. 
The  rich  man  could  not  get  awTay  from  the  rich 
man.  Under  all  bludgeoning,  he  was  there. 
The  worm  died  not  and  the  fire  was  not 
quenched.  As  it  is  the  manifest  joy  of  the 
Bible  heaven,  so  a  manifest  horror  of  the  Bible 
hell  is  continuity.  That  hell  is  bearable  is  an 
unbearable  thing  about  hell.  There  is  neither 
suicide  nor  annihilation  for  the  lost.  In  heaven 
they  go  out  no  more  forever. 

Neither  the  Bible  heaven  nor  the  Bible  hell 


248 


SENT  FORTH 


is  a  matter  of  locality.  As  place  is  of  all  things 
finite,  they  have  a  place,  but  place  is  not  of 
their  making.  Not  where  but  what  is  the  key 
of  destiny.  The  rich  man  was  in  Hades,  whiclT 
is  the  world  of  spirits,  whether  good  or  bad.  It 
was  his  torment,  and  not  his  hell,  that  was  of 
moment.  For  a  bad  man  there  is  always 
probably  a  worse  hell  than  any  hell  he  gets 
into,  and  that  hell  is  heaven.  Both  the  rich 
man  and  the  beggar  were  in  touch  with  three 
worlds;  where  they  had  been,  where  they  were, 
and  where  they  could  look.  But  location  was 
not  of  the  essential.  The  map  is  negligible  in 
the  world  of  the  dead.  The  Bible  heaven  and 
hell  alike  are  intrinsic.  Either  might  be  any¬ 
where. 

Neither  heaven  nor  hell  is  a  physical  matter. 
The  physical  rich  man  and  the  physical  beggar 
were  in  their  graves.  The  burning  flame,  the 
parching  tongue,  the  cry  for  water,  were  of  a 
soul  in  torment.  The  comfort  of  Lazarus  was 
comfort  of  soul.  The  physical  but  garments 
the  soul.  One  can  live  with  the  house  of  this 
tabernacle,  with  the  building  of  God,  or  with 
neither,  as  to  the  Bible.  The  frequent  pro¬ 
vincial  waste  of  words  as  to  a  literal  lake  of 
fire  might  all  be  spared.  The  Christian  might 
leave  a  sensuous  heaven  to  the  Turk.  The 
rich  man  was  in  torment,  with  no  body  to  burn 


OVER  THE  BORDER 


249 


or  shrivel.  Lazarus  was  comfortable  with  his 
body  underground.  While  in  the  body  we 
may  use  terms  of  the  body  in  reaching  an  under¬ 
standing,  but  to  reach  farther  is  to  overreach. 
The  resurrected  body  is  a  spiritual  body,  and 
has,  doubtless,  joys  or  troubles  of  its  own 
beyond  all  imagining.  A  common  experience 
under  the  sun  is  to  outgrow  ourselves.  Heaven 
will  be  unspeakably  more  precious  than  any 
earth  terms  have  made  it.  Hell  will  be  a 
sinking  below  all  earlier  definitions.  Immortal 
souls  soon  travel  to  terminologies  of  their  own. 
One  day  it  will  be  common  usage  to  say  that, 
as  to  its  earthly  home,  a  soul  has  a  body  rather 
than  a  body  has  a  soul.  Another  day  it  will 
be  well-nigh  entirely  true  that  man  is  a  soul. 

Bible  destiny  is  a  reign  of  the  right.  Good 
things  and  evil  things,  comfort  and  torment, 
are  no  longer  so  sadly  tangled  as  in  the  life  we 
know  most  about.  A  first  impression  made  on 
convicts  in  the  penitentiary  is  that  they  are 
now  in  a  world  where  one  does  not  trifle  with 
law.  “Good  behavior,”  behind  the  bars,  is 
good  behavior.  It  is  good  behavior  where  ill 
behavior  finds  no  patience.  In  our  ordinary 
world  consideration  fills  so  large  a  place  we  see 
but  little  real  justice.  Indeed,  so  finite  is 
mundane  life,  real  justice  is  probably  impos¬ 
sible.  The  last  thing  one  would  ask  with  open 


250 


SENT  FORTH 


eyes,  this  side  the  grave,  is  his  rights.  Beyond 
the  grave  one’s  rights  are  his  life.  The  rich 
man  cannot  be  comfortable  in  hell  without  ill 
effect  on  the  beggar.  With  the  beggar  among 
dogs,  it  might  be  done,  but  the  beggar  among 
angels  is  another  matter.  Should  one  consider 
how  much  of  his  life  on  earth  is  of  his  earning, 
he  would  get  a  notion  of  the  differences  in 
heaven  and  hell.  The  spoiled  child  of  the  dust 
is  there  grown  to  a  stature  where  he  may  bear 
the  regnancy  of  right,  and  reap  what  he  has 
sown.  It  is  a  world  he  never  knew.  If  it  is 
not  glorious,  it  is  pitiful  and  terrible.  The 
Bible  destiny  for  men  is  a  reign  of  the  right. 
We  sing  of  heaven  as  a  land  of  the  leal. 

We  are  not  largely  informed,  but  heaven  and 
hell  alike  are  somewhat  in  their  restrictions. 
One  cannot  do  some  things  in  heaven.  There 
are  more  he  cannot  do  in  hell.  Between  them 
is  a  great  gulf  fixed.  Familiar  with  the  finite, 
as  we  grow  to  be  on  earth,  at  home  with  the 
shut  in  and  the  shut  out,  it  abides  with  us 
when  we  fly  away.  Content  or  otherwise,  we 
stay.  “He  which  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy 
still.”  “He  that  is  righteous,  let  him  be  right¬ 
eous  still.”  If  in  the  earth  nothing  is  so 
unchangeable  as  change,  the  country  where 
we  journey  will  be  a  wonderland. 

The  Bible  hell  is  a  prayerless  land.  In  heaven 


OVER  THE  BORDER 


251 


we  shall  almost  discover  prayer.  The  rich 
man  prayed  in  hell.  He  prayed  three  times. 
Not  one  prayer  was  answered.  The  soul  in 
hell  is  sane  after  a  fashion  probably  unknown 
on  earth.  When  one  has  learned  the  law  of 
the  place,  he  will  no  longer,  automatically, 
blindly,  crazily,  or  despairingly  pray.  The 
Bible  hell  is  a  prayerless  land.  There  is  no 
other  such  a  prison.  One  lives  forever  to  him¬ 
self.  While  he  lived  his  God  was  self.  He  is 
simply  allowed  his  God.  The  rich  man’s 
wealth,  and  purple,  and  fine  linen,  and  sump¬ 
tuous  fare,  and  abounding  health,  had  been  his 
life.  He  had  been  sure  he  could  serve  both 
God  and  Mammon.  To  be  covetous  was  the 
way  of  his  wTorld.  Why  live  at  all  if  one  could 
not  shine  before  his  neighbors?  Why  should 
one  be  tied  to  a  wife  did  he  want  another  woman 
worse?  Divorce  has  been  a  prerogative  with 
the  worldly  through  long  ages.  Self  all  the  way 
has  been  the  end  of  the  argument.  Now  that 
he  will  forget  self  and  pray,  he  finds  he  must 
content  himself  with  self.  The  Bible  hell  is  a 
prayerless  land.  With  all  hindrances  left  be¬ 
hind,  the  very  air  of  heaven  must  be  prayer. 
No  longer  much  a  way  to  get  things,  its  ancient 
worth,  communion  with  God,  comes  into  its 
own.  For  the  convert  of  the  cross  to  be  in 
heaven  with  Jesus  was  quite  enough.  “And 


252 


SENT  FORTH 


Enoch  walked  with  God:  and  was  not;  for  God 
took  him.”  Good  terms  with  God  is  heaven 
enough  as  it  is  enough  for  earth.  It  will  be 
nothing  strange  to  find,  as  in  old  Jerusalem, 
that  the  Father’s  house  is  a  house  of  prayer. 

The  Bible  hell  is  a  land  of  discomfort.  Com¬ 
fort  is  enough  for  heaven.  A  great  theologian, 
Dr.  Miner  Raymond,  was  once  accused  of  fash¬ 
ioning  a  doctrine  of  a  tolerable  hell.  He  said 
what  he  cared  more  about  was  a  tolerable  God. 
With  all  credit  given  to  the  mercy  and  love  of 
God,  the  hard  cold  fact  remains  that  the  Bible 
hell  is  nowhere  written  as  tolerable  or  comfort¬ 
able.  Its  citizens  call  it  torment.  The  soul 
is  sick  within  itself,  sick  with  the  world  it  lives 
in,  sick  that  it  cannot  sink,  sick  that  it  cannot 
go,  sick  that  it  cannot  keep  away  its  best  be¬ 
loved.  Every  thinkable  quiet  is  a  door  to 
trouble.  A  sip  of  cold  water  will  not  be  denied. 
It  is  denied.  Could  one  hate  somebody,  it 
would  help.  But  the  difficulty  is  the  great 
gulf  fixed,  not  that  all  heaven  would  not  be 
glad  to  come.  If  comfort  may  not  be  brought, 
one  may  go  after  it.  Not  so,  for  they  that 
would  come  out  must  stay.  There  is  no  com¬ 
fort  in  the  universe  save  outside  of  hell,  and  the 
great  gulf  is  fixed.  Neither  may  heaven  help 
the  earth  where  hell  is  at  interest.  One  who 
will  not  hear  Moses  and  the  prophets  has  no 


OVER  THE  BORDER 


253 


ear  for  any  world.  God  is  forever  doing  his 
final  best  in  every  world  of  his  dominion.  Any¬ 
thing  other  would  be  an  echo,  shadow,  dream 
of  something  that  was  better.  The  Bible  hell 
is  the  last  word  in  misery.  Its  very  shadows 
fail  of  night. 

The  Bible  hell  is  as  needless  as  it  is  deserved. 
Moses  and  the  prophets  w^ere  the  whole  wealth 
of  God  to  shut  one  door  and  open  wide  another. 
The  steward  has  only  to  be  faithful  in  all  as  he 
is  in  some.  A  beggar  gone  to  the  dogs  can  still 
keep  out  of  hell.  One  takes  more  trouble  to 
get  to  hell  than  anywhere  else;  it  is  an  utterly 
idiotic  journey.  One  can  get  on  with  almost 
any  sort  of  a  wife  but  one,  as  to  the  Bible  itself. 
The  Pharisee  was  under  no  compulsion  to  a 
divorce,  to  be  covetous,  or  to  be  proud.  That 
the  lost  find  no  one  to  blame  but  themselves  is 
of  their  despair.  The  just  made  perfect  enjoy 
their  heaven  as  being  just. 

The  Bible  hell  is  the  death  of  hope  as  heaven 
is  its  fruition.  Every  wish  the  rich  man  had 
was  folly.  Henceforth  he  will  suspect  and 
dread  all  wishes  will  be  folly.  There  is  forever 
nothing  new  he  will  not  rather  miss.  There 
is  probably  under  heaven  or  among  men  no 
sweeter  joy  than  a  bright  to-morrow,  and  hell 
is  a  hopeless  land,  utterly  strange  and  fearsome. 
One  would  smile  delirious  welcome  to  a  scorch- 


254 


SENT  FORTH 


ing  flame.  A  soul  with  care  no  longer  for  a 
future,  unexpectant,  stale,  is  a  supreme  horror 
of  all  language  and  all  worlds. 

Perhaps  no  single  concept  is  more  nearly  true 
than  that  either  hell  or  heaven  is  the  thing  one 
is.  The  rich  man  and  the  beggar  were  both 
Jews.  Racial  distinctions  do  not  run  beyond 
the  veil.  Lazarus,  Dives,  Abraham,  the  angels 
find  themselves  at  a  common  interest.  As  in 
sleep,  shipwreck,  famine,  there  is  no  caste  when 
men  are  dead.  Political,  cultural,  economic 
bars,  all  are  down.  The  beggar  was  not  in 
heaven  that  he  was  poor.  The  rich  man  was 
not  in  hell  that  he  was  rich.  Abraham  was 
rich.  Not  every  beggar  may  consort  with 
angels.  This  particular  beggar  carries  his 
heaven  with  him.  The  sort  of  rich  man  he 
had  been  wTas  the  rich  man’s  hell  beyond  all 
else.  Covetous,  proud,  self-indulgent,  sensual, 
there  was  no  table  where  he  might  sit,  no  room 
in  all  his  world  where  the  manner  of  man  he 
was  might  feel  at  home.  His  hell  was  under 
his  purple  robe.  Does  one  not  have  a  heaven 
in  his  soul  there  is  no  heaven  to  be  found.  As 
in  nothing  other,  the  thing  we  are  is  our  world, 
in  any  world. 

Did  one  say  in  a  word  that  heaven  is  the  neg¬ 
ative  of  the  lost  world,  he  would  say  the  truth, 
but  probably  not  at  all  the  whole  truth.  Dis- 


OYER  THE  BORDER 


255 


comfort  gives  way  to  comfort,  and  despair  to 
hope.  The  rule  of  right  is  a  felicity  rather 
than  a  penalty.  Such  restrictions  as  even  good 
men  still  may  need,  will  be  hailed  as  benedic¬ 
tions.  Prayer  will  be  native  air.  Service  will 
be  joy.  The  company  of  the  sad  and  hateful 
will  be  escaped  for  that  of  saints  and  angels. 
Rather  than  no  welcome  future  it  will  seem  as 
if  life  were  all  To-morrow.  With  the  im¬ 
mortal  dreamer,  the  vision  is  a  lonely  weari¬ 
ness  with  the  dust  and  night.  “And  when  I 
saw,  I  wished  myself  among  them.” 


DATE  DUE 

JffTT 

T 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.  A. 

V 


